385  Wash 'n  St.  Boston 


33 p  Samuel  ^tl.  Crotljcrc 


MEDITATIONS  ON  VOTES  FOR  WOMEN. 

HUMANLY  SPEAKING. 

AMONG  FRIENDS. 

BY  THE  CHRISTMAS  FIRE. 

THE  PARDONER'S    WALLET. 

THE  ENDLESS    LIFE. 

THE  GENTLE  READER. 

OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES:  THE  AUTO- 
CRAT AND  HIS  FELLOW  BOARDERS.  With 
Portrait. 

MISS  MUFFET'S  CHRISTMAS  PARTY.  Illus- 
trated. 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 
BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 


MEDITATIONS  ON  VOTES  FOR  WOMEN 


.  OF  GAUT.  .  U» 


Meditations  On 

VOTES 

For    WOMEN 

Coget^er  txrftlj 

ANIMADVERSIONS  on 
the  closely  related  subject 
of  VOTES  for  MEN 

BY 

SAMUEL    McCnoRD    CROTHERS 


Boston  &  New  York 

HOUGHTON  MlFFLIN  COMPANY 

ilicrsiDc  prcs0  Cambttbge 
MD  •  CCCC  •  XIV 


COPYRIGHT,   1914,  BY  SAMUEL  MCCHORD  CROTHERS 
ALL   RIGHTS   RESERVED 

Published  October  1914 


A  DEDICATORY  EPISTLE 
To  American  Gentlewomen 

IF  the  grand  old  name  of  "gentleman"  has  been 
soiled  by  ignoble  use,  its  correlative  "lady"  has 
not  altogether  escaped  the  vulgarizing  touch  of 
those  who  have  identified  it  with  the  accidents  rather 
than  with  the  realities  of  social  life.  But  the  name  of 
"gentlewoman  "  has  had  a  happier  fortune .  When  we 
speak  of  one  as  a  gentlewoman,  we  are  thinking  not  of 
her  station  but  of  her  character.  We  think  of  one  with 
gracious  manners  and  sweet  reasonableness  of  soul. 
You  American  gentlewomen  are  not  iconoclasts. 
You  instinctively  realize  that  the  things  which  you 
hold  most  precious  were  not  made  in  a  day  and  if  they 
are  destroyed  cannot  be  reproduced  by  an  eager 
reformer.  Courtesy,  kindliness,  sympathy,  generosity, 
are  not  to  be  established  by  a  political  campaign  nor 
assured  by  an  act  of  legislature.  You  know  that  habit 
is  more  than  impulse  and  that  it  is  only  through 
patient  training  that  habits  can  be  changed  for  the 
better.  You  have  a  dislike  for  loud  and  noisy  methods 

and 


21?8895 


vi  A  DEDICATORY  EPISTLE 

and  a  distrust  of  those  who  say,  "Let  us  do  evil  that 
good  may  come"  You  are  the  guardians  of  the  endur- 
ing things.  You  have  believed  that 

"  The  World-soul  knows  his  own  affair, 
Forelooking  when  he  would  prepare 
For  the  next  ages  men  of  mould 
Well  embodied,  well  ensouled, 
He  cools  the  present's  fiery  glow, 
Sets  the  life  pulse  strong  but  slow." 

You  believe  that  it  is  better  for  the  world  that  its 
women  should  have  a  strong  slow  life  pulse  than  that 
they  should  exhaust  their  energies  in  spasmodic  efforts. 
When  you  read  from  some  advance  agent  of  the  new 
era  that  Raphael's  Madonna  no  longer  represents  any 
worthy  ideal  of  womanhood,  you  are  not  convinced, 
especially  if  you  discover  that  the  talented  iconoclast 
is  herself  a  nervous  wreck.  There  is  a  health  and 
poise  both  physical  and  spiritual  which  seems  to  you 
more  valuable  than  any  number  of  advanced  ideas. 

I  sympathize  thoroughly  with  your  point  of  view. 
It  is  when  we  come  to  practical  applications  that 
questions  arise  that  require  discrimination.  Each 
specific  question  must  be  judged  without  prejudice. 

When 


A  DEDICATORY  EPISTLE  vii 

When  we  agree  upon  a  high  ideal  of  manhood  that 
does  not  determine  what  a  man  must  do  under  all  the 
circumstances  that  arise.  Manliness  does  not  imply 
that  a  man  should  or  should  not  be  a  Free  Trader  or 
an  Osteopath.  Free  Trade  and  Osteopathy  have  their 
adherents,  some  of  whom  are  manly  and  some  are 
not. 

In  like  manner  womanliness  is  a  quality  which  we 
gladly  recognize,  but  which  does  not  determine  the 
kind  of  work  a  woman  may  engage  in,  or  the  particu- 
lar cause  she  may  advocate.  One  recognizes  a  gentle- 
woman in  her  own  house.  One  recognizes  her  also  in 
the  business  office  or  on  the  political  platform.  Those 
of  us  who  are  conservative  enough  still  to  read  the 
Victorian  poets  may  accept  their  assertion  that 
womanly  graciousness  was  not  incompatible  with  the 
exercise  of  the  prerogatives  of  the  head  of  a  great 
empire.  It  all  depended  on  the  way  the  necessary 
work  was  done. 

There  are  many  things  connected  with  the  agitation 
for  equal  suffrage  with  which  you  do  not  sympathize. 
There  are  methods  and  ideas  which  conflict  with  what 
seems  to  you  more  precious  than  any  political  rights. 

You 


viii  A  DEDICATORY  EPISTLE 

You  fear  that  womanly  qualities  may  suffer  in  an 
unseemly  scramble  for  power. 

I  do  not  say  that  such  fears  are  groundless.  I  only 

ask  you  to  consider  whether  there  are  not  necessary 

risks  which  must  be  taken  for  the  sake  of  an  advancing 

civilization.    There  may  be  good  reasons  why  women 

should  not  vote,  but  there  is  no  reason  why  you  should 

not  throw  aside  the  poor  reasons.    They  only  clutter 

up  the  mind.  It  is  not  a  matter  of  personal  preference 

but  of  public  policy.    What  is  required  is  a  certain 

mental  detachment  and  good-humored  willingness  to 

look  at  the  subject  from  many  angles.   The 

great  thing-  is  to  be  willing 

to  think  it 

over. 


TABLE  OF  MATTERS 

THAT  women  have  existed  since  the  be- 
ginning of  the  human  race,  and  that 
they  have  always  taken  part  in  human 
development 7 

That  theories  are  sometimes  several  sizes  too 
large  for  their  practical  applications  .  .  .  1 1 

That  equal  suffrage  is  not  the  first  step  in  an 
impending  revolution,  but  only  a  necessary 
adjustment  to  the  results  of  a  revolution  that 
has  already  happened 15 

That  the  driving  power  of  the  movement  for 
equal  suffrage  is  not  Feminism  but  democracy  19 

That  it  is  an  ancient  observation  that  man  is 
"born  of  woman"  21 

That  while  men  and  women  have  been  long 
on  the  earth,  it  does  not  follow  that  new 
types  may  not  be  developed  from  time  to  time  25 

That  the  lawless  acts  of  certain  English  militants 
only  prove  that  some,  women  are  no  wiser  than 
some  men 27 

That 


x  TABLE  OF  MATTERS 

That  agitators  sometimes  deliberately  endeavor 
to  make  themselves  disagreeable  and  that 
they  frequently  succeed  beyond  their  expecta- 
tions   31 

That  the  martyr  spirit  should  be  respected  even 
when  we  do  not  understand  it 35 

That  a  practical  joke  eventually  loses  its  point    37 

That  in  dealing  with  high-spirited  people  we 
should  remember  that  the  question  of  right 
must  always  be  settled  before  a  question  of 
expediency  is  considered 41 

That  conscience  works  better  when  it  has  a 
steady  job 47 

That  husbands  have  some  political  rights  that 
their  wives  are  bound  to  respect 49 

That  a  voter  does  not  vote  all  the  time,  but  is 
allowed  a  number  of  days  off  in  order  to 
attend  to  his  private  business 52 

That  voting  is  not  as  fatiguing  a  form  of  polit- 
ical activity  as  vote-getting 55 

That  women  in  expressing  their  opinions  should 
be  allowed  to  be  as  modest  and  unobtrusive  as 
men 59 

That 


TABLE  OF  MATTERS  xi 

That  chivalry  is  an  excellent  thing  and  much  to 
be  desired,  when  it  is  genuine 62 

That  example  is  more  potent  than  precept   .     .    65 

That  a  majority  vote  does  not  represent  a  pre- 
ponderance of  physical  force  67 

That  these  meditations  do  not  remove  the 
weighty  practical  difficulties  in  the  way  of 
woman  suffrage 72 

That  most  women  do  not  take  large  and  dis- 
interested views  of  public  questions  ...  74 

That  most  men  —  including  crowned  heads  — 
do  not  take  large  and  disinterested  views  of 
public  questions 75 

That  nevertheless  public  questions  must  be 
considered  and  human  interests  must  be  en- 
trusted to  human  beings 77 

"That  all  great  and  honourable  actions  are 
accompanied  with  great  difficulties  and  must 
be  both  enterprised  and  overcome  with 
answerable  courages " •  79 


MEDITATIONS   ON 
VOTES  for  WOMEN 

THERE  is  an  illuminating  expression 
that  is  used  now  and  then  —  "When 
I  come  to  think  about  it."  It  is 
generally  used  when  a  controversy  is  over  or 
an  unwelcome  truth  at  last  admitted,  and 
there  is  nothing  more  to  be  done  about 
it.  A  person  has  had  a  very  decided  opinion 
and  has  expressed  it  with  great  vehemence. 
All  his  efforts  have  proved  unavailing  and 
the  thing  against  which  he  protested  has 
come  to  pass.  Then  in  a  sudden  burst  of 
common  sense  he  resolves  to  sit  down  and 
think  about  it. 

Why  he  did  not  adopt  this  meditative 
method  in  the  first  place  he  cannot  exactly 
explain.  Perhaps  it  is  because  in  the  struggle 
for  existence  man  is  compelled  to  be  an  active 
rather  than  a  reflective  creature.  Thought  is 
apt  to  come  in  the  form  of  an  afterthought. 
Wisdom  is  essentially  retrospective. 

The 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

The  process  of  thinking  things  over  in 
advance  would  save  from  a  great  many  an- 
tagonisms. Reflection  has  a  soothing  effect 
upon  the  mind  if  it  is  properly  managed.  We 
talk  of  Time  as  the  great  reconciler.  This  is 
true  only  when  time  is  taken  for  fruitful  medi- 
tation. The  man  described  in  the  first  Psalm 
who  was  accustomed  to  meditate  on  the  law 
of  the  Lord  day  and  night  must  have  avoided 
many  irritating  conflicts  with  his  neighbors. 
He  had  better  things  to  think  about.  Marcus 
Aurelius,  who  was  much  given  to  meditation, 
saw  that  it  was  folly  to  "Csesarize."  Most 
emperors  waste  a  great  deal  of  time  in 
Caesarizing. 

Meditation  has  an  advantage  over  discus- 
sion. It  takes  two  to  carry  on  a  discussion, 
whereas  any  one  who  is  so  disposed  can  medi- 
tate. Moreover,  in  a  discussion  we  are 
limited.  We  cannot  contemplate  the  whole 
subject,  but  we  must  take  one  side  while  our 
opponent  takes  the  other.  We  cannot  look  at 
the  facts  as  they  go  about  their  ordinary  busi- 
ness in  the  actual  workaday  world.  They 
must  be  mobilized.  They  leave  their  peaceful 

avocations 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

avocations,  hurriedly  put  on  a  uniform,  and 
flock  to  the  colors.  When  we  review  them  we 
think  of  nothing  but  their  fighting  value. 

However  conscientiously  we  choose  sides 
we  must  reject  or  ignore  some  fact  which  in 
other  moods  we  should  recognize  as  having 
significance.  We  must  sacrifice  everything  to 
efficiency.  Sometimes  we  must  assume  some- 
thing which  is  quite  doubtful  for  the  sake  of 
the  argument.  To  change  sides  is  an  awk- 
ward and  perilous  maneuver,  like  changing 
seats  in  a  canoe.  In  order  to  preserve  the 
equilibrium  of  the  discussion  we  must  keep 
our  original  place. 

But  in  meditation  we  are  free.  We  can 
consider  one  side  and  then  the  other  without 
embarrassment.  If  we  change  our  opinion 
because  the  weight  of  evidence  has  shifted 
there  is  no  one  to  exult  over  us  and  make  us 
ashamed.  If  we  recognize  that  we  have  been 
mistaken  in  our  assumptions  there  is  no  one 
to  say  "I  told  you  so."  We  quietly  make  the 
necessary  adjustments  to  ever-changing  real- 
ity, and  go  on  with  our  business  of  thinking. 
We  are  not  required  to  reach  any  predeter- 
mined 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

mined  conclusions.  We  have  no  nervous 
anxiety  to  catch  any  particular  train  of 
thought,  as  we  are  traveling  on  our  own  feet, 
and  are  willing  to  put  up  wherever  the  night 
finds  us.  Hence  it  is  that  while  discussions  go 
on  with  great  vigor,  and  few  are  convinced 
except  of  the  righteousness  of  their  own 
cause,  meditation  often  brings  unexpected 
results.  When  we  meditate  we  sometimes 
change  our  minds.  This  is  a  beneficent 
achievement,  for  it  renders  it  unnecessary  for 
us  to  spend  all  our  strength  in  attempting  to 
change  the  order  of  the  universe  and  the 
whole  direction  of  human  progress,  in  order 
to  get  a  sense  of  the  fitness  of  things. 

It  sometimes  happens  that  by  relaxing  our 
minds,  and  especially  our  wills,  we  get  at 
possibilities  of  harmony  between  elements 
which  seemed  to  be  in  hopeless  antagonism. 
A  contemplative  attitude  allows  us  to  see  the 
general  direction  in  which  things  are  going. 
On  the  evening  of  a  national  election  we  are 
more  apt  to  get  the  news  by  staying  away 
from  our  own  party  headquarters  where  only 
one  kind  of  news  is  promulgated. 

There 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

There  are  few  subjects  which  have  of  late 
been  more  vehemently  debated  than  the 
extension  of  the  right  of  suffrage  to  women. 
It  seems  to  offer  peculiar  enticements  to  con- 
troversialists. So  much  can  be  said  for  and 
against  it,  and  so  easily.  Moreover,  it  is  a 
debate  which  is  peculiarly  adapted  to  those 
of  regular  habits  who  do  not  care  to  go  far 
afield  in  search  of  opponents.  It  can  be  car- 
ried on  uninterruptedly  in  the  home  circle. 

Persons  who  love  to  discuss  the  different 
ways  in  which  Civilization  is  about  to  be 
ruined,  and  who  evoke  the  various  perils  that 
threaten,  are  often  embarrassed  by  the  diffi- 
culty of  visualizing  the  dangers  that  impend. 
The  Yellow  Peril,  the  Slav  Peril,  Pan-Ger- 
manism, Pan-Islamism,  and  the  rest,  are 
foreign  in  their  nature,  and  need  the  historic 
imagination  to  realize  them.  But  a  citizen 
who  gets  the  notion  that  the  Woman  Peril 
threatens  to  overwhelm  all  things  holy,  may 
see  it  smiling  at  him  across  the  tea-table.  It 
is  no  figment  of  the  imagination  that  con- 
fronts him.  And  the  Peril  is  always  able  to 
talk  back  when  he  cries  Avaunt ! 

But 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

But  while  there  is  a  great  amount  of  serious 
—  and  less  serious  —  discussion,  there  seems 
to  be  a  lack  of  meditation.  There  is  the  stri- 
dent cry  of  "Votes  for  Women!"  which  is 
answered  by  negative  voices  which  are  not 
always  as  gentle  as  one  might  expect.  There 
are  the  exaggerations  which  always  accom- 
pany partisan  discussion. 

It  would  be  a  counsel  of  perfection  to  ask 
any  one  to  meditate  on  Votes  for  Women  with 
the  same  detachment  with  which  one  might 
meditate  on  the  Passage  of  Time,  the  Beauties 
of  Nature,  or  the  Vanity  of  Human  Greatness. 
But  a  certain  amount  of  meditation  is  pos- 
sible even  to  the  most  earnest. 

Meditation  dwells  on  the  obvious,  upon 
broad  aspects  of  the  subject  that  always  form 
the  common  background  of  every  discussion. 
There  are  things  so  obvious  that  clever  people 
never  mention  them.  They  "go  without  say- 
ing." It  is,  however,  necessary  now  and  then 
to  say  them  just  to  remind  ourselves  that  they 
are  still  going.  Some  of  these  obvious  con- 
siderations may  be  suggested  as  profitable  for 
some  leisure  hour  when  we  are  not  anxious  to 

convince 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

convince  any  one,  but  only  to  clear  our  minds 
of  prejudices  which  disquiet  us. 


nr 


(HIS    is    a    fact   which    seems    to    be  That  women  have 

ignored  rather  than  contradicted  by  ef isted  since  the  be- 
,.  ~v  .  .  i.       •    •     ginning  of  the  human 

*       eager  disputants.  Yet  in  reality  it  is  racCj  and  ^  they 
very  important  and  comforting.  have  always  taken 

In  reading  certain  feministic  literature  one  part  in  human  de- 
suffers  from  a  nervous  shock,  such  as  comes  vel°Pment- 
when  the  fire  engines  rush  up  to  put  out  a  fire 
in  the  kitchen  stove.    In  fact  there  are  two 
shocks  —  first,  that  which  comes  from  the 
thought  that  there  is  a  great  conflagration, 
and  then  that  which  comes  from  the  discovery 
that  nothing  has  happened  out  of  the  ordi- 
nary. 

There  is  an  urgency  as  of  some  new  and 
unheard-of  power  that  has  just  come  into  the 
world.  Heretofore  this  has  been  a  man's 
world  arranged  for  his  convenience.  Now 
Woman  has  appeared,  open-eyed  and  armed, 
and  all  things  are  to  be  changed.  Religion, 
the  State,  the  Family,  are  to  be  reorganized 
according  to  a  strictly  feministic  plan.  If  the 
ultimatum  is  not  at  once  accepted  we  may 

look 


8  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

look  for  that  dreadful  catastrophe,  a  sex 
war. 

No  wonder  that  the  honest  citizen  awak- 
ened by  the  loud  cry  is  not  in  the  best  of 
humor.  And  when  he  is  called  opprobrious 
names  like  Victorian  and  Early- Victorian  he 
is  inclined  to  be  surly.  It  is  all  so  sudden.  It 
appears  that  all  the  ideals  of  womanhood  that 
he  has  revered  are  to  be  overturned  and 
trodden  under  foot  by  cohorts  of  Amazons 
shouting  "Down  with  the  Home." 

Now,  the  honest  citizen  loves  his  home  as 
he  loves  nothing  else,  and  does  not  take 
kindly  to  the  idea  that  it  should  be  destroyed. 
There  is  a  certain  vagueness  about  the  threats. 
Just  exactly  what  the  new  plan  is  he  does  not 
know.  The  only  thing  in  the  programme  of 
revolutionary  Feminism  that  he  can  get  hold 
of,  and  that  lies  within  the  sphere  of  practical 
politics,  is  the  demand  for  the  ballot.  Here  is  a 
limited  battle-ground  where  the  friends  of  the 
Home  and  of  Christian  marriage  can  make 
a  stand.  They  can  put  up  a  stout  resistance 
till  they  can  find  out  what  it  is  all  about. 

If  the  home-loving  citizen  would  sit  down 

and 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

and  think  about  it  he  would  realize  that  this 
is  a  false  alarm.  The  entrance  of  woman  in 
the  sphere  of  human  action  is  no  new  thing, 
like  the  aeroplane  or  the  submarine.  She  has 
always  been  here,  and  has  always  been  influ- 
ential. Such  civilization  as  we  have  is  largely 
of  her  making.  If  civilization  itself  is  a  crime 
she  has  been  accessory  both  before  and  after 
the  fact. 

We  cannot  treat  half  the  human  race  as  an 
altogether  unknown  quantity.  That  women 
can  fight  is  no  new  discovery.  Jael  the  wife  of 
Heber  the  Kenite  knew  how  to  wield  a  ham- 
mer for  her  cause.  Let  any  one  who  is 
alarmed  at  the  advent  of  women  in  industry 
meditate  on  the  business  woman  described  in 
the  book  of  Proverbs. 

"She  seeketh  wool  and  flax,  and  worketh 
willingly  with  her  hands.  .  .  .  She  bringeth 
her  food  from  afar.  She  riseth  while  it  is  yet 
night,  and  giveth  meat  to  her  household  and 
a  portion  to  her  maidens.  She  considereth  a 
field,  and  buyeth  it:  with  the  fruit  of  her 
hands  she  planteth  a  vineyard.  She  girdeth 
her  loins  with  strength,  and  strengtheneth  her 

arms. 


io  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

arms.  She  perceiveth  that  her  merchandise  is 
profitable.  .  .  .  She  layeth  her  hands  to  the 
distaff,  and  her  hands  hold  the  spindle.  .  .  . 
She  maketh  herself  coverings  of  tapestry.  .  .  . 
She  maketh  fine  linen  and  selleth  it;  and 
delivereth  girdles  unto  the  merchant." 

Having  taken  over  the  woolen  and  flax 
industry  with  the  business  of  spinning  and 
weaving,  having  engaged  in  agriculture  and 
dealt  in  merchandise  and  real  estate,  she 
superintended  the  general  chanties.  "She 
stretcheth  out  her  hand  to  the  poor;  yea,  she 
reacheth  forth  her  hands  to  the  needy."  There 
was  nothing  left  for  her  husband  but  to  sit  at 
the  gate  and  praise  his  wife. 

Nothing  in  the  modern  situation  is  quite  so 
one-sided  as  this  ancient  description  of  the 
sphere  of  women.  But  somehow  men  have 
survived. 

I  suspect  that  this  bit  of  feministic  litera- 
ture represented  an  ideal  that  was  not  always 
realized.  It  was  the  exceptional  Hebrew 
woman  rather  than  the  average. 

As  to  present-day  Feminism  we  must 
remember  that  it  represents  a  literary  cult. 

It 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  n 

It  is  a  term  like  Realism,  or  Romanticism,  or 
the  Lake  Poets. 

When  you  attempt  to  read  the  literature  of 
the  Futurists  you  are  not  alarmed  about  the 
Future.  There  is  no  danger  that  it  will  be  like 
that.  When  the  Future  comes  the  present- 
day  Futurists  will  seem  not  weird  but  only 
quaint.  And  when  you  read  a  Feminist  book 
with  its  astonishing  programme,  you  need  not 
fear  that  that  is  what  women  will  do  when 
they  get  the  vote.  You  are  only  reading  what 
one  woman  thinks  they  would  do  if  they  were 
all  as  clever  as  she  is. 

You  say  that  you  are  glad  that  they  are 
not.  You  prefer  the  common  sense  and 
domestic  feeling  of  the  average  woman  to 
these  literary  vagaries.  Perhaps  you  are  right. 
You  may  be  interested  in  a  simple  little  device 
by  which  the  opinion  of  the  average  woman 
might  from  time  to  time  be  ascertained. 

WHEN  John  Knox  was  in  the  thick  of  That  theories  are 

his  fight  for  religious,  or  rather  for  sometimes  several 

-r,       ,  .  r       j  r       r          i  sizes  too  large  for 

Presbyterian,   freedom  he   found  theirpracticfalap. 

that  the  fiercest  opposition  came  from  a  few  plications. 

royal 


12  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

royal  women.  Margaret  had  continued  in  the 
Netherlands  the  persecution  which  Isabella 
of  Castile  had  carried  on  in  Spain.  Mary 
Stuart  and  her  mother  were  implacable  foes 
of  the  Presbytery,  and  Mary  Tudor  sat  on  the 
throne  of  England. 

No  wonder  that  the  fiery  reformer  made  a 
sweeping  generalization  and  identified  fem- 
inine influence  with  Popery.  He  remembered 
the  conflict  of  Elijah  against  Jezebel,  and  he 
blew  the  First  Blast  of  the  Trumpet  against 
the  monstrous  Regiment  of  Women. 

But  before  a  second  blast  could  be  blown 
"Bloody  Mary"  died  and  Elizabeth  came  to 
the  throne.  Knox  was  too  good  a  Scotchman 
to  give  up  a  doctrine  which  he  had  once  pro- 
mulgated, but  he  was  too  good  a  politician  to 
insist  on  strict  construction  under  the  changed 
circumstances.  He  remembered  that  Jezebel 
was  not  the  only  woman  mentioned  in  the 
Bible.  There  was  Deborah  who  ruled  Israel 
wisely.  Of  course  Deborah  was  an  exception. 
Elizabeth  was  a  second  Deborah,  and  there- 
fore a  second  exception. 

The  predicament  of  Knox  is  that  of  all 

eager 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  13 

eager  controversialists.  A  decent  respect  for 
the  opinion  of  mankind  induces  us  to  put  our 
contention  on  some  broad  grounds  which 
mankind  can  appreciate.  Issues  that  are  in 
reality  local  and  limited  are  discussed  as  if 
they  involved  the  whole  universe.  There  is 
always  a  satisfaction  in  believing  that  the 
stars  in  their  courses  are  fighting  for  us.  We 
try  to  identify  the  stellar  orbits  with  our  plan 
of  campaign. 

Suppose  the  question  arises  as  to  whether 
it  is  expedient  that  women  should  vote  in  the 
State  of  Connecticut.  This  is  really  a  finite 
proposition.  But  when  it  becomes  a  subject 
of  debate  it  expands  into  the  infinite.  It  takes 
on  a  cosmic  character.  The  biologists,  the 
anthropologists,  the  physiologists,  and  the 
animal  psychologists,  are  called  to  give  expert 
testimony.  Even  the  botanists  take  a  hand  as 
their  science  also  takes  cognizance  of  the 
difference  between  male  and  female.  Dire 
prophecies  are  uttered  in  regard  to  the  race 
degeneracy  which  would  follow  an  unscientific 
amendment  to  the  constitution  of  Connecti- 
cut. 

The 


14  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

The  trouble  with  these  scientific  arguments 
is  that  they  prove  too  much.  If  the  analogy 
of  plants  and  insects,  and  even  of  the  higher 
mammals,  is  followed,  the  female  of  the 
species  should  not  vote.  Neither  should  she 
play  bridge  nor  read  a  newspaper  nor  attend 
church  nor  play  the  piano. 

These  activities  are  all  without  any  war- 
rant from  sub-human  experience.  It  is  doubt- 
ful if  any  of  them  are  particularly  good  for 
the  health. 

The  fact  is  that  mankind  has  broken  so 
many  precedents,  and  taken  so  many  risks, 
for  the  sake  of  moral  and  intellectual  improve- 
ments, that  it  is  inclined  to  go  its  own  way. 
It  asks  what  is  right  for  human  beings  under 
civilized  conditions.  If  animals  and  savages 
are  not  able  to  live  in  this  way  so  much  the 
worse  for  them.  The  next  step  in  advance 
is  always  dangerous.  It  involves  a  new  ad- 
justment, and  the  exercise  of  powers  that 
have  not  heretofore  been  used.  But  the  only 
thing  to  do  is  to  meet  the  conditions  as  they 
arise,  and  keep  as  cheerful  as  possible  while 
doing  so. 

During 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  15 

DURING  the  past  generation  many  That  equal  suffrage 

things  have  come  to  pass  which  were  *s  not  l^e  ^rst  steP  m 

IT  i    *.•  rrir        r  •   r  an  impending  revo- 

really    revolutionary.     The    higher  ,    .      ,         , 

education    of   women,    their    entrance    into  necessary  adjustment 
business  and  the  professions,  and  their  active  to  the  results  of  a 

participation    in   all    sorts   of   public   work  revolution  that  has 
.     .  P         .     .  already  happened, 

marked  a  profound  change. 

Like  all  great  revolutions,  it  came  not  out 
of  the  whim  of  a  little  body  of  revolutionists, 
but  through  the  pressure  of  necessity.  The 
orthodox  doctrine  that  the  place  of  women 
is  in  the  home  is  as  ancient  as  the  home  it- 
self. When  the  home  was  a  mere  tent  it  was 
understood  that  the  woman  of  the  family  had 
it  in  charge.  But  this  did  not  mean  that  the 
only  occupation  of  women  was  the  rearing  of 
her  children  and  the  keeping  of  the  house  in 
order.  We  have  seen  how  various  were  the 
activities  of  the  Hebrew  woman,  who  without 
leaving  her  home  carried  on  all  kinds  of 
lucrative  business. 

Up  to  a  comparatively  recent  time  industry 
was  largely  domestic.  The  family  was  a  unit 
in  manufacturing  as  it  still  is  in  agriculture 
on  the  smaller  farms.  Each  member  of  the 

family 


1 6  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

family  contributed  directly  to  the  support 
of  all. 

With  the  coming  in  of  the  factory  system, 
the  rush  to  the  cities  began,  and  the  home 
industries  suffered.  A  great  part  of  woman's 
work  was  taken  away  from  her.  All  sorts  of 
labor-saving  inventions  made  the  necessary 
tasks  of  housekeeping  and  food  preparing  less 
burdensome.  Under  these  circumstances  the 
formula,  "Woman's  place  is  in  the  home," 
came  to  have  a  meaning  different  from  that 
which  it  had  ever  had  before.  It  meant  that 
the  man  should  be  the  active  worker,  while 
the  woman  should  be  the  priestess  to  guard  the 
fire  on  the  domestic  hearth.  In  the  mean  time 
the  fire  on  the  hearth  had  itself  become  a  figure 
of  speech. 

That  this  highly  sentimental  theory  of  the 
division  of  labor  should  be  long  acquiesced 
in  by  active-minded  women  was  not  to  be 
expected.  When  a  large  part  of  their  work 
was  taken  from  their  homes,  they  did  what 
human  beings  have  always  done  under  eco- 
nomic pressure  —  they  followed  their  work. 

Women  can  no  longer  profitably  spin  and 

weave 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  17 

weave  by  their  own  firesides.  They  spin  and 
weave  in  factories.  They  cannot  sell  goods  at 
their  doorsteps.  They  sell  goods  in  the  de- 
partment stores.  Children  are  educated  not 
privately  but  publicly.  Therefore  the  woman 
who  might  have  been  a  governess  becomes  a 
teacher  in  the  public  schools.  The  working- 
woman  everywhere  goes  to  her  work  because 
her  work  does  not  come  to  her. 

In  thus  seeking  the  work  that  had  escaped 
from  her,  the  modern  woman  discovered  all 
sorts  of  ways  of  making  a  living.  She  could 
make  a  career  for  herself.  One  educational 
opportunity  after  another  was  opened  to  her. 
She  was  not  content  with  the  Young  Ladies' 
Boarding  School  with  its  showy  "accomplish- 
ments." She  would  go  to  college  with  her 
brother,  she  would  choose  disciplinary  stud- 
ies, she  would  fit  herself  for  work  that  people 
are  ready  to  pay  for.  All  this  she  has  ac- 
tually done.  There  are  few  departments  of 
modern  industry  where  there  are  notjwomen 
who  are  acknowledged  as  experts. 

And  then  the  modern  passion  for  Social 
Service  came,  and  educated  women  have 

responded 


1 8  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

responded  to  it.  Ideals  of  individual  culture 
have  not  satisfied  them.  They  are  eager  to 
take  part  in  the  vast  labor  of  reorganizing 
human  society.  They  have  learned  that  dis- 
ease and  pauperism  and  crime  are  social  mal- 
adies as  well  as  individual  misfortunes.  If 
these  evils  are  to  be  lessened,  it  must  be  by 
united  and  intelligent  effort.  It  requires  intel- 
lect as  well  as  a  kindly  heart.  The  social 
worker  leaves  her  own  home  to  help  other 
people  make  homes  that  are  worth  having. 
She  has  to  be  an  acute  observer  and  an  inde- 
pendent thinker.  She  is  a  member  of  a  new 
profession  and  is  already  demanding  and 
receiving  professional  training. 

Already  the  term  "woman's  rights"  has  an 
old-fashioned  sound.  The  thousands  of  wo- 
men in  influential  positions  are  not  shrieking 
for  the  right  to  vote. 

They  are  too  busy  with  plans  for  the  com- 
mon good.  In  the  opinion  of  such  women  the 
proposed  reform  in  the  laws  relating  to  the 
suffrage  is  not  a  radical  measure,  but  a  bit 
of  unfinished  business  left  over  by  the  last 
generation. 

There 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  19 

THERE   are  doubtless   some  women  That  the  driving 
who   seek   the   vote   because   they  power  of  the  move- 
,  .    ,  11.  1  •     •       i      ment  for  equal 

think    it   would   give    a    distinctly  suffrage  is  not  Fern- 

feminine  cast  to  the  government,  and  lead  to  mism  but  democracy, 
the  triumph  of  ideals  held  by  women  and  not 
by  men.  But  the  vast  majority  seek  it  be- 
cause they  are  interested  in  those  public 
questions  in  which  men  and  women  are 
equally  concerned.  They  believe  in  a  demo- 
cratic order  of  society,  and  this  is  one  of  its 
expressions. 

Democracy  does  not  promise  much  to  any 
special  class.  It  allows  no  one  to  have  all  he 
asks.  Because  you  are  rich,  or  have  had  a 
classical  education,  or  an  excellent  set  of 
grandfathers,  is  no  reason  why  you  should 
have  more  than  one  vote.  You  shall  cast  one 
ballot  and  the  garbage-man  shall  do  the  same. 
If  you  do  not  acquiesce  cheerfully  in  this 
arrangement,  you  may  be  a  gentleman  and 
a  scholar,  but  you  are  not  a  good  demo- 
crat. 

Or  because  you  are  a  woman  and  have  a 
charming  personality,  your  opinion  shall  have 
no  more  than  its  proper  arithmetical  value. 

You 


2O  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

You  shall  not,  on  election  day,  count  for  more 
than  one. 

To  those  who  desire  special  consideration, 
democracy  is  not  pleasing.  It  takes  away 
more  than  it  seems  to  give.  It  is  an  equalizing 
tendency  by  which  every  valley  shall  be 
exalted  and  every  mountain  and  hill  shall  be 
made  low.  The  democratization  of  society 
has  gone  on  by  slow  degrees.  The  democratic 
mind  cannot  accept  the  disfranchisement  of 
any  class  as  permanent.  It  represents  a  vac- 
uum that  must  be  filled.  When  once  the  idea 
of  popular  government  has  been  accepted, 
there  must  be  a  definition  of  the  term  "the 
people."  What  is  meant  by  "We  the  people 
of  the  United  States"?  In  what  sense  do 
American  women  use  the  phrase?  Or  do  they 
prefer  not  to  use  it,  but  rather  to  say,  "they 
the  people"? 

These  are  democratic  queries  which  cannot 
be  escaped.  They  continue  to  recur  so  long 
as  the  political  status  of  women  is  uncertain. 
The  programmes  of  feminism  and  democracy 
may  coincide  up  to  a  certain  point  but  they 
are  not  identical.  The  enthusiastic  Feminist 

is 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  21 

is  thinking  of  the  maximum  of  woman's  influ- 
ence. Democracy  is  chiefly  concerned  about 
the  irreducible  minimum. 


A 


CURIOUS  thing  about  the  discus-  That  it  is  an  ancient 

sions  in  regard  to  the  sphere  of  wo-  observation  that  man 
.  .          .....        is     born  of  woman. 

men  is  the  notion  ot  heredity  that 


slips  in  unawares.  One  might  imagine  that 
we  were  talking  about  two  races  which  had 
different  origins  and  histories.  Women  we 
are  told,  have  had  no  long  civic  experience. 
For  ages  their  attention  has  been  confined  to 
domestic  affairs.  It  is  too  much  to  expect  that 
in  a  generation  or  two  they  will  acquire  that 
political  aptitude  which  has  been  the  inheri- 
tance of  men.  Centuries  must  elapse  before 
evolution  has  had  time  to  do  its  work  in  de- 
veloping their  latent  capacities  for  citizen- 
ship. 

It  is  somewhat  of  a  shock  when  we  are  re- 
minded that  man,  the  highly  developed  politi- 
cal animal,  is  born  of  woman.  To  be  sure  his 
political  sagacity  was  not  manifested  at  birth, 
but  has  been  acquired  through  education.  No 
one  has  yet  stated  that  natural  capacity  for 

political 


22  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

political  action  comes  through  one  parent 
only.  Caius  and  Tiberius  Gracchus  had  a 
genius  for  politics  and  their  father  was  a  dis- 
tinguished man  before  them.  But  the  mother 
of  the  Gracchi  seemed  to  have  understood 
what  Roman  patriotism  meant  as  well  as  any 
of  them.  When  we  come  to  think  about  it,  we 
see  no  reason  why  she  should  n't. 

A  brother  and  sister  stand  side  by  side. 
They  derive  their  lives  from  the  same  source, 
their  family  history  is  identical.  But  the  ex- 
ternal history  of  their  ancestors,  their  station 
in  life,  their  political  or  religious  beliefs,  their 
business  successes  have  no  influence  upon 
them  except  as  the  memory  of  them  has  been 
preserved  and  thus  serves  as  an  incentive  or 
as  a  warning.  As  for  political  experience  it  is 
preserved  and  handed  down  not  by  biological 
but  by  educational  processes.  It  is  some- 
thing that  is  taught  to  each  successive  genera- 
tion, and  when  it  is  not  carefully  taught  it  is 
lost. 

Thomas  Fuller  dedicated  his  "Historic  of 
the  Holy  Warre"  to  "Edward  Montagu  and 
Sir  John  Powlet  sonnes  and  heirs  to  the 

Right 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN          23 

Right  Honourable  Edward  Lord  Montagu  of 
Boughton  and  John  Lord  Montagu  of  Hin- 
ton." 

The  dedication  breathes  the  fine  spirit  of 
inherited  public  service.  The  nobly  born 
youths  are  told  that  there  are  "foure  princi- 
pall  actours  on  the  Theatres  of  Great  Fami- 
lies; the  Beginner,  Advancer,  Continuer  and 
Ruiner."  The  boys  are  urged  not  to  be  con- 
tent to  be  mere  continuers  of  their  family  his- 
tory but  advancers.  "None  can  go  on  in  our 
English  chronicles  but  must  meet  with  a 
Montagu  or  a  Powlet  either  in  peace  in  their 
gowns  or  in  war  in  their  armour.  .  .  .  Your 
youthfull  virtues  are  so  promising  that  you 
cannot  come  off  in  your  riper  age  with  credit 
without  performing  what  may  redound  to  the 
advancing  the  honour  of  your  family  and 
without  building  your  houses  one  storie 
higher  in  the  English  Historic." 

He  urges  them  to  the  study  of  history  that 
they  may  gain  that  experience  which  will  en- 
able them  to  add  to  the  glory  of  their  houses. 

"What  a  pitie  is  it  to  see  a  proper  Gentle- 
man have  such  a  crick  in  his  neck  that  he  can- 
not 


24  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

not  look  backward,  yet  no  better  is  he  who 
cannot  see  behind  him  the  actions  which  long 
since  were  performed.  History  maketh  a 
young  man  old,  without  either  wrinkles  or 
gray  hairs,  priviledging  him  with  the  experi- 
ence of  age,  without  either  the  infirmities  or 
inconveniences  thereof." 

It  is  only  in  that  way  that  political  experi- 
ences can  be  inherited.  In  an  aristocracy  it  is 
passed  from  generation  to  generation  as  a 
precious  family  tradition.  In  a  democracy  it 
is  the  great  aim  of  public  education  to  pre- 
pare the  new  citizens  for  their  duties  by  im- 
parting to  them  the  lessons  of  experience 
gained  by  their  country  in  the  past. 

That  the  average  boy  is  capable  of  being 
educated  sufficiently  to  perform  the  common 
duties  of  citizenship  we  all  believe.  That  the 
average  girl  is  incapable  of  being  educated  to 
the  same  extent  one  is  loath  to  believe. 

If  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  average  woman  of 
to-day  is  indifferent  to  public  affairs  and  in- 
capable of  fixing  her  mind  upon  an  issue  long 
enough  to  give  an  intelligent  opinion,  one 
hesitates  to  attribute  it  to  a  congenital  weak- 
ness 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  25 

ness  of  the  understanding.  It  seems  to  be 
more  reasonable  to  attribute  it  to  mis-educa- 
tion. Even  the  greatest  admirers  of  pedagogi- 
cal science  admit  that  there  is  a  great  deal  of 
mis-education  in  the  world. 

The  hopeful  thing  to  remember  is  that  there 
is  a  great  difference  between  a  biological 
process  and  an  educational  process.  In  biology 
we  cannot  do  much  in  a  generation.  In  edu- 
cation a  generation  is  all  the  time  there  is. 

If  we  should  make  up  our  minds  that  the 
political  experience  of  the  race  was  the  in- 
heritance of  our  daughters  as  well  as  of  our 
sons,  we  could  give  it  to  them  in  precisely 
the  same  time.  What  use  they  would  then 
make  of  it  would  depend  upon  themselves. 

THOUGH   Feministic   theories   must  That  while  men  and 
not  be  taken  too  literally,  they  are  women  have  been 
yet  suggestive  of  changes  that  are  long  on  the  earth  it 

.         .  does  not  follow  that 

taking  place.    The   essential   thing  is   that  new  type8  may  not 

many  women  are  becoming  conscious  of  what  be  developed  from 
some  women  have  always  felt,  that  some  of  time  to  time< 
the  limitations  which  have  been  accepted  as 
natural  are  in  reality  only  conventional,  and 

so 


26          MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

so  can  be  removed.  The  only  way  to  deter- 
mine what  is  natural  and  what  is  conventional 
is  by  the  method  of  experiment.  By  pushing 
against  every  barrier  women  can  force  those 
that  are  artificial  to  give  way.  In  this  struggle 
for  freedom  there  must  necessarily  be  evoked 
a  challenging  spirit  which  is  not  very  gracious. 

In  a  miracle  play  a  veiled  figure  is  intro- 
duced and  walks  across  the  stage.  It  is  ex- 
plained that  this  is  Adam  as  he  goes  to  be 
created. 

Always  among  the  completed  characters 
that  crowd  the  stage  is  the  inchoate  figure  of 
the  creature  that  is  on  the  way  to  be  created. 
The  Old  Adam  is  a  well-known  character,  but 
the  New  Adam  is  an  enigma.  In  each  genera- 
tion there  is  a  conversation  like  this,  — 

"How  do  you  do,  Adam!" 

"I  do  not  do.  I  am  not  a  creature.  I  am 
The  About-to-be-Created." 

"  I  wonder  how  you  will  turn  out  when  you 
are  created?" 

"I  don't  know,"  growls  Adam,  "but  I  do 
not  intend  to  be  like  you." 

This  is  ungracious  and  does  not  tend  to 

endear 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN          27 

endear  the  new  candidate  for  existence  to 
those  whose  self-esteem  is  wounded.  But 
when  the  New  Adam  has  been  created,  there 
is  more  family  resemblance  to  the  Pre- 
Adamites  than  he  is  willing  to  admit. 

The  New  Woman  is  inclined  to  scout  all  the 
ideals  of  womanhood  that  have  gone  before. 
She  intends  to  be  absolutely  different.  This  is 
because  she  is  on  her  preliminary  walk  across 
the  stage.  After  the  New  Woman  has  been 
created  the  newness  will  gradually  wear  off 
and  the  ineradicable  womanliness  will  come 
out.  We  may  be  quite  sure  of  that. 

SOME  men  are  fanatics,  and  so  are  some  That  the  lawless  acts 

women.  Fanaticism  has  always  accom-  of  certain  English 

panied    progress,    but   this    does   not  f1*31118  only  prove 

*        .         .  .     .  that  some  women  are 

prove,  as  some  people  imagine,  that  it  is  the  no  wiser  than  80me 

cause  of  it.    Railroad  accidents  accompany  men. 
railroading  but  do  not  add  to  its   profits. 
From  the  manager's  point  of  view,  a  train  on 
the  track  is  worth  two  in  the  ditch. 

Every  cause  has  had  its  fanatics,  —  persons 
who  in  their  zeal  are  willing  to  sacrifice  all 
other  interests  to  it  without  regard  to  the 

ordinary 


28  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

ordinary  demands  of  justice  and  good-fellow- 
ship. They  demand  "direct  action,"  which 
usually  means  action  that  disregards  the 
rights  of  neutrals.  No  one  can  tell  when  a 
fanatical  turn  may  be  given  to  a  movement 
that  has  gone  on  peacefully.  The  question  of 
the  right  way  of  administering  the  Lord's 
Supper  has  been  the  occasion  of  most  cruel 
wars.  The  Anabaptists  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury held  views  which  most  people  in  these 
days  would  think  harmless  enough,  but  then 
they  became  the  occasion  of  all  sorts  of  an- 
archistic outbreaks.  There  are  multitudes  of 
lawabiding  people  who  look  forward  to  the 
second  coming  of  Christ,  but  in  the  mean 
time  go  quietly  about  their  business.  But 
there  was  a  time  when  this  expectancy  took 
on  a  militant  form.  Wild-eyed  Fifth  Mon- 
archy men  proclaimed  the  reign  of  King 
Jesus,  and  to  bring  it  in  by  direct  action 
sought  to  capture  the  city  of  London  and  kill 
the  Lord  Mayor.  Then  it  was  time  to  call  out 
the  trainbands. 

Usually  these  militant  outbreaks  can  be 
accounted  for  less  by  anything  in  the  nature 

of 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  29 

of  the  cause  which  is  fought  for  than  in  the 
general  temper  of  the  times.  They  are  evi- 
dences of  a  dangerous  nervous  tension. 

We  are  able  to  understand  the  so-called 
militancy  in  England  better  than  we  could  a 
short  time  ago.  We  see  its  relation  to  the 
movement  for  suffrage  to  be  more  or  less  acci- 
dental. Now  that  a  great  war  has  come,  we 
see  how  feverish  was  the  condition  of  the 
peoples  who  looked  forward  to  it  with  sup- 
pressed passion  and  vague  foreboding.  Not 
knowing  just  whom  they  were  to  fight,  but 
feeling  that  fighting  was  inevitable,  they 
conceived  of  everything  in  militant  form. 
There  were  to  be  not  only  wars  between 
Slav  and  Teuton,  but  between  Celt  and  Saxon, 
class  wars  and  industrial  wars  without  num- 
ber. 

Even  the  efforts  in  behalf  of  the  public 
health  were  conceived  of  under  warlike  im- 
agery. There  were  wars  proclaimed  against 
the  fly  and  the  mosquito  and  the  germs  of 
tuberculosis. 

Earnest  women,  perceiving  that  they  had 
been  denied  civil  rights,  and  accepting  the 

prevalent 


30  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

prevalent  philosophy,  imagined  that  when 
they  were  breaking  tradesmen's  windows  and 
destroying  works  of  art  and  setting  fire  to 
unguarded  buildings  they  were  making  war. 
It  was  supposed  to  be  that  appeal  to  force 
through  which  all  human  rights  have  been 
won.  Then  suddenly,  to  those  who  were  play- 
ing with  fire,  the  great  conflagration  came. 
War  grim  and  relentless  is  upon  the  world. 
All  make-believe  militancies  shrink  into  in- 
significance. 

Those  who,  carried  away  by  a  misleading 
analogy,  thought  that  the  suffrage  for  women 
could  be  obtained  by  threats,  and  by  sporadic 
acts  of  lawlessness,  must  perceive  that  their 
tactics  are  not  now  effective.  Nations  which 
are  fighting  for  their  lives  are  not  likely  to  be 
coerced  by  what  are  only  petty  annoyances. 
When  the  history  of  our  time  comes  to  be 
written,  militancy  will  be  seen  to  be  a  symp- 
tom of  a  disturbed  state  of  public  mind, 
which  preceded  the  great  and  terrible  war. 
That  women  yielded  to  the  nervous  strain 
and  for  the  time  lost  their  balance  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at.  Men  did  the  same. 

Our 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  31 

OUR  problems  are  simplified  when  we  That  agitators  some- 
get  into  the  habit  of  calling  things  times  deliberately 
.    .       •  t  A  r  plan  to  make  them- 

by  their  right  names.  Arson,  for  ex-  ^elves  disagreeable 

ample,  is  the  name  for  a  particular  crime.  anj  that  they  fre- 
We  cannot  accept  it  as  a  legitimate  means  of  quently  succeed  be- 

political  agitation.    Much  as  we  may  believe  ^  their  exPe<> 

f  .  tations. 

in  the  righteousness  of  a  cause,  we  do  not  be- 
lieve that  it  can  be  advanced  by  acts  which  in 
their  nature  are  criminal.  We  hold  to  the 
opinion  of  the  good  clergyman  — 

"Who,  when  religious  strife  waxed  mad, 
Still  held,  in  spite  of  all  his  learning, 
That  if  a  man's  beliefs  were  bad, 

They  would  n't  be  improved  by  burning. 

But  the  agitator  has  his  legitimate  field  of 
activity.  While  we  have  a  right  to  demand 
that  he  stop  short  at  acts  that  are  criminal,  it 
is  too  much  to  ask  that  he  should  not  make 
himself  disagreeable.  His  object  is  to  arouse 
those  who  are  at  ease  in  Zion  and  to  make 
their  slumbers  impossible.  He  must  irritate 
and  alarm  those  who  are  unconscious  that 
anything  is  wrong.  To  do  this  he  must  make 
himself  as  unpleasant  as  possible. 

I  know  a  lady  with  a  fine  sense  of  propriety 

and 


32  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

and  a  musical  ear  who  is  also  the  owner  of  an 
automobile.  When  she  first  became  the  pos- 
sessor of  the  motor-car  she  chose  a  horn 
whose  dulcet  notes  pleased  her.  The  sound 
was  an  harmonious  even  joyous  invitation  to 
the  pedestrian  to  get  out  of  the  way.  But  the 
pedestrian  was  soothed  into  obliviousness  of 
the  approaching  danger,  and  absent-minded 
chickens  meandered  unwarned  to  their  doom. 
Now  she  has  a  horn  that  shrieks  like  an  en- 
raged fiend.  The  wayfarer  is  startled  out  of 
his  reverie  and  irritated  into  immediate  and 
salutary  action.  The  raucous  sound  was  dic- 
tated by  the  principle  "Safety  first." 

The  agitator  is  different  from  the  fanatic. 
He  knows  precisely  what  he  is  doing.  That 
which  he  intends  to  agitate  is  the  nerves  of 
quiet  people  who  refuse  to  look  at  facts.  If 
he  can  get  on  their  nerves  he  has  accom- 
plished his  purpose.  His  object  is  to  make 
himself  so  unendurable  that  in  mere  self- 
defence  they  will  have  to  remove  the  griev- 
ance of  which  he  complains. 

The  point  to  remember  is  that  the  talent 
for  making  one's  self  obnoxious  is  a  personal 

gift 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  33 

gift  which  is  not  shared  by  all  the  members 
of  a  party.  Moreover,  it  has  nothing  what- 
ever to  do  with  the  cause  for  which  the 
agitator  works.  There  have  been  reformers 
like  Bright  and  Cobden  who  have  gained 
their  ends  by  the  methods  of  persuasion. 
Parnell,  on  the  other  hand,  in  cold  blood  de- 
termined that  English  statesmen  should  have 
no  comfort  till  they  did  justice  to  Ireland. 

In  the  reign  of  George  III  well-disposed 
Englishmen  were  driven  almost  frantic  by 
the  cry  "  Wilkes  and  Liberty."  Either  Wilkes 
or  Liberty  could  have  been  dealt  with  indi- 
vidually, but  their  combination  was  madden- 
ing. The  liberty-loving  person  was  like  the 
lover  of  fresh  air  in  a  mosquito-infested  re- 
gion. He  would  like  to  sit  on  the  piazza,  in  the 
evening  and  breathe  the  unpolluted  atmos- 
phere. But  the  buzzing  pests  will  not  allow 
him  a  moment's  peace.  And  so  he  goes  into 
the  house  and  slams  the  door.  He  does  n't 
like  that  either. 

The  moral,  of  course,  is  that  he  should  join 
with  his  neighbors  in  draining  the  swamp  in 
which  the  mosquitoes  breed.  But  this  is  a 

consideration 


34  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

consideration  that  does  not  come  to  him  at 
once.  Like  Pharaoh  he  endures  the  plagues 
as  long  as  he  can  without  listening  to  sugges- 
tions of  permanent  reform.  He  "hardens  his 
heart  as  in  the  provocation." 

That  which  irritated  the  Englishman  of  his 
day  was  that  Wilkes  had  such  a  way  of  put- 
ting them  in  the  wrong.  The  fact  is  that 
these  excellent  people  could  n't  put  them- 
selves right  without  changing  their  whole 
system,  and  that  they  were  not  ready  to  do. 

Let  us  admit  that  the  agitator  is  not  a  lov- 
able character.  He  does  n't  mean  to  be.  Yet 
he  may  be  very  useful.  He  is  so  unpleasant 
that  we  try  to  get  rid  of  him.  After  a  time  we 
learn  that  the  only  way  to  get  rid  of  him  is  to 
remedy  the  conditions  out  of  which  he  arises. 
His  real  strength  lies  in  his  grievance.  If  we 
can  find  out  what  the  grievance  is  and  redress 
it,  the  agitator  will  find  his  occupation  gone. 

Women  do  not  naturally  enjoy  the  role  of 
the  agitator.  If  they  assume  it,  it  is  from  a 
sense  of  duty.  They  know  that  they  do  not 
appear  to  advantage.  When  large  numbers 
of  women  adopt  the  unpleasant  methods  of 

agitation 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  35 

agitation  it  is  proof  that  they  believe  that 
they  have  a  grievance.  It  is  time  for  the  peo- 
ple who  are  disturbed  to  try  and  find  out 
what  the  grievance  is. 

IN  the  First  Book  of  the  Maccabees  we  That  the  martyr 
read  how  King  Antiochus  sought  to  de-  spirit  should  be  re- 
stroy  the  Jewish  ritual,  and  how  all  sorts  ^pected  even  when  we 

do  not  understand  it. 
of  severe  measures  were  put  upon  the  statute 

book  and  rigidly  enforced. 

"Howbeit  many  in  Israel  were  fully  re- 
solved and  confirmed  in  themselves  not  to  eat 
any  unclean  thing.  Wherefore  they  chose 
rather  to  die  that  they  might  not  be  defiled 
with  meats,  and  that  they  might  not  profane 
the  holy  covenant;  so  they  died." 

It  is  impossible  to  read  the  story  without  a 
sudden  thrill  when  we  come  to  the  simple 
statement,  "so  they  died." 

How  incomprehensible  to  our  minds  are  the 
scruples  about  forbidden  meats.  We  have 
long  since  accepted  the  common-sense  dic- 
tum of  St.  Paul  that  "meat  commendeth  us 
not  to  God:  for  neither,  if  we  eat,  are  we 
the  better;  neither,  if  we  eat  not,  are  we  the 

worse." 


36  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

worse."  But  not  so  did  these  Jews  think.  To 
them  it  was  a  matter  of  supreme  importance 
—  and  "so  they  died." 

Wherever  we  meet  it  the  martyr  spirit 
gives  us  pause.  The  martyr  is  literally  a  wit- 
ness. He  is  one  who  testifies  to  his  heart's 
faith  not  by  words  alone,  but  by  deeds.  He  is 
loyal  even  unto  death.  He  is  not  a  fanatic 
willing  to  do  evil  that  good  may  come.  He  is 
one  who  deliberately  does  what  he  believes  to 
be  good,  though  sure  that  evil  will  thereby 
come  to  him.  He  accepts  the  evil  as  some- 
thing inevitable.  He  is  not  merely  an  agi- 
tator with  calculated  provocations.  He  sim- 
ply stands  by  the  unpopular  cause  because  he 
cannot  do  otherwise.  To  him  it  means  per- 
sonal suffering  which  he  voluntarily  endures. 

One  cannot  dismiss  "militancy"  and  all 
that  has  accompanied  it  without  for  a  moment 
pausing  to  do  justice  to  a  spirit  that  has  been 
evoked  by  it. 

The  martyr  spirit,  wherever  it  has  mani- 
fested itself,  must  be  recognized  with  rever- 
ence. Women  who  are  of  the  stuff  martyrs 
are  made  of  have  appeared.  We  may  refuse 

to 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN          37 

to  accept  the  pseudo-martyrs  at  their  own 
estimation,  but  the  testimony  of  the  real 
martyrs  cannot  be  laughed  away. 

THERE    is   no  such   hidebound   con-  That  a  practical  joke 
servative  as  your  confirmed  humor-  e^ually  loses  its 
1st.   Charles  Lamb  tells  of  the  chim- 
ney sweep  who  stood  laughing  as  if  his  jest 
would  last  forever.    It  is  hard  for  any  one  to 
realize  that  all  jests  are  mortal. 

The  most  primitive  and  persistent  form  of 
humor  is  the  practical  joke.  A  trick  that 
never  fails  to  delight  is  that  of  playing  on  the 
superstition  of  our  fellow  creatures,  by 
means  of  some  new  powers  which  we  can  use 
but  which  they  have  not  discovered.  The 
joker  who  gets  hold  of  a  new  tool  can  per- 
form what  seem  to  them  miracles.  He  is 
looked  upon  as  a  superior  being  and  obeyed  as 
such.  They  never  suspect  that  if  they  had  the 
same  tools  they  could  do  the  same  things.  All 
this  is  very  amusing  to  the  person  who  per- 
forms the  trick.  He  is  very  careful  not  to  give 
away  his  profitable  secret. 

The  Man  with  the  Hoe  may  seem  to  you 

to 


38  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

to  be  a  very  dull  fellow.  But  you  should  see 
him  with  the  Man  with  the  Forked  Stick. 
In  an  hour  he  can  perform  agricultural  feats 
which  the  forked-sticker  could  not  do  in  a 
day.  How  insolently  he  wields  his  hoe  and 
flourishes  it  as  a  scepter.  He  belongs  to  a 
ruling  race.  Does  he  allow  his  inferior  to 
touch  the  sacred  hoe?  Not  at  all!  Fire  might 
descend  from  heaven  to  avenge  such  sacrilege. 

It  was  a  great  joke  for  the  first  horsemen  to 
descend  upon  a  valley  where  the  people  were 
not  of  analytic  minds,  and  so  were  unable  to 
distinguish  between  the  horse  and  the  rider. 
To  be  mistaken  for  centaurs  was  highly  amus- 
ing. After  that  every  means  would  be  taken  to 
keep  up  the  illusion. 

But  the  trouble  with  all  such  practical 
jokes  is  that  after  a  while  they  are  found  out. 
The  moment  the  victim  grasps  the  distinc- 
tion between  the  tool  and  the  tool-user  the 
spell  is  broken.  When  the  Red  Indian  dis- 
covered that  the  rifle  in  order  to  be  effective 
need  not  be  in  the  hand  of  a  white  man,  he 
ceased  to  think  of  the  white  man  as  a  divine 
thunderer.  He  would  have  a  rifle  of  his  own,  and 

use 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  39 

use  it  for  his  own  purposes.  When  the  book 
gets  out  of  the  hands  of  the  clergy  into  the 
possession  of  the  common  people,  the  magical 
power  of  the  clergy  is  broken.  It  is  found  that 
reading  and  writing  are  not  such  great  matters 
after  all.  The  mere  child  can  practice  them  if 
he  is  allowed  the  opportunity. 

But  long  after  the  victims  have  been  dis- 
illusioned the  practical  jokers  keep  up  their 
airs  of  superiority.  This  is  the  ironical  fate 
which  pursues  all  governing  classes.  They  are 
unable  to  discover  the  exact  time  when  they 
are  found  out. 

A  long  time  after  the  commercial  classes 
had  achieved  power  in  the  state,  the  sur- 
vivors of  the  old  landed  aristocracies  contin- 
ued their  little  jests  about  those  who  were  in 
trade. 

Frequently  it  happens  that  a  particular 
class  has  been  arbitrarily  prevented  from 
making  use  of  the  tools  of  civilization.  They 
were  then  laughed  at  for  the  resultant  disabil- 
ities. How  amusing  was  the  Irishman  in  the 
bad  old  days.  Being  prevented  by  penal  laws 
from  normal  political  action,  it  was  droll  to 

observe 


40  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

observe  his  inaptitude  for  responsible  citizen- 
ship. 

For  generations  the  nonconformists  of  Eng- 
land were  denied  entrance  to  the  universi- 
ties. How  delicate  was  the  raillery  of  Matthew 
Arnold  as  with  unfailing  precision  he  pointed 
out  the  weakness  of  the  nonconformist  mind. 
This  weakness  was  the  lack  of  that  peculiar 
type  of  culture  which  was  characteristic  of 
Oxford  and  Cambridge. 

When  the  artificial  restrictions  have  been 
removed  the  tables  are  turned  upon  the 
jesters.  It  is  seen  that  the  differences  in  na- 
tive ability  do  not  correspond  to  the  lines 
that  had  been  before  recognized.  The  notions 
about  superiors  and  inferiors  must  be  revised. 

That  there  are  differences  in  the  aptitudes 
of  men  and  women  we  may  readily  admit. 
But  the  only  way  by  which  these  differences 
may  be  determined  is  by  observing  their  be- 
havior when  they  are  given  the  same  oppor- 
tunities. The  rule  of  fair  play  is  expressed  by 
the  phrase  "other  things  being  equal."  When 
the  other  things  are  made  unequal  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  come  to  any  conclusion.  To  handicap 

one 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  41 

one  runner  and  then  laugh  at  him  because  he 
cannot  win  the  race  is  a  practical  joke  that 
cannot  last  forever. 

In  the  use  of  ordinary  political  machinery 
men  had  the  advantage  which  comes  to  the 
first  discoverers.  But  this  advantage  was  tem- 
porary and  accidental.  To  expect  that  it  will 
always  be  treated  as  a  natural  superiority  is 
to  ask  too  much  of  feminine  hero-worship. 
The  vote  is  simply  an  instrument  for  register- 
ing the  popular  will.  It  is  an  invention  like  a 
cash  register  —  only  simpler.  That  some  wo- 
men should  allow  themselves  to  think  of  it  as 
a  mystery  to  be  comprehended  only  by  the 
more  statesmanlike  masculine  mind  is  amus- 
ing to  some  men,  — 

"  And  gentle  Dullness  ever  loves  a  joke." 

OF  course   it   is   a   question   whether  That  in  dealing  with 
people  should  be  high-spirited,'  and  high-spirited  people 
whether  they  do  not  lose  money  by  it;  T  sh°uld  remembe5 

'   that  the  question  of 

but  as  practical  persons  we  must  take  them  as  ^ght  must  always  be 


they  are.  settled  before  a  ques- 

The  mistake  of  the  ruling  classes  has  always  tion  °f  expediency  is 
been  that  they  have  reversed  the  order  of 

precedence. 


42  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

precedence.  They  have  considered  expediency 
first  and  have  postponed  questions  of  rights 
to  a  more  convenient  season. 

This  was  the  capital  blunder  of  the  Cabinet 
of  George  III.  They  repealed  the  Stamp  Act 
as  a  matter  of  expediency,  while  expressing 
scorn  for  the  principle  on  which  the  American 
colonists  resisted  it.  Then  they  wondered 
that  the  colonists  were  not  satisfied.  An  em- 
ployer of  labor  will  increase  wages  and  im- 
prove working  conditions  and  at  the  same  time 
refuse  to  allow  his  workmen  the  liberty  of 
action  and  cooperation  which  they  demand. 
Then  he  is  astonished  at  their  ingratitude. 

There  are  some  persons  of  a  naturally  pa- 
triarchal mind,  and  they  have  all  the  patri- 
archal virtues.  They  like  nothing  better  than 
to  provide  generously  for  a  large  number  of 
dependents.  They  are  willing  to  give  them 
what  is  good  for  them  in  large  measure  well 
pressed  down  and  running  over.  But  they 
cannot  grasp  the  idea  that  some  people  do  not 
like  to  be  dependents  and  be  given  things  that 
are  good  for  them.  They  prefer  things  not 
so  good  which  they  choose  for  themselves. 

This 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  43 

This  right  to  choose  is  to  them  so  precious  that 
they  are  willing  to  sacrifice  many  comforts 
for  it.  This  is  all  very  strange  to  the  belated 
patriarch  who  finds  himself  in  a  democratic 
community. 

Questions  of  expediency  come  afterwards 
and  must  be  eventually  considered,  but  by 
the  free  citizen  himself.  He  has  a  great  many 
rights  which  he  may  not  think  it  expedient  to 
use.  They  are  part  of  his  reserves,  to  be  used 
only  in  emergencies.  He  is  none  the  less  jealous 
of  any  infringement  on  these  reserved  rights. 

St.  Paul  declared  the  doctrine  of  liberty,  — 
"All  things  are  lawful  to  me,  but  all  things  are 
not  expedient " ;  and  he  told  of  the  things  he 
claimed  a  perfect  right  to  do  but  which  he 
never  intended  to  do.  His  conscience  moved 
in  a  wide  margin  of  freedom. 

Let  us  apply  this  doctrine  to  the  sphere  of 
women  in  modern  society.  They  demand  an 
equality  of  opportunity  with  men.  But  it 
does  not  follow  that  they  must  seize  all  these 
opportunities  and  use  them.  This  would  be  a 
new  and  intolerable  tyranny.  As  a  citizen  of 
the  United  States,  I  claim  the  free  use  of  any 

public 


44  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

public  highway  from  Maine  to  California. 
I  should  consider  it  an  outrage  if  any  one 
should  presume  to  prevent  such  free  use.  But 
this  does  not  mean  that  I  must  turn  tramp 
and  spend  all  my  time  on  the  road.  There  are 
in  the  country  a  number  of  highways  which 
I  have  no  occasion  to  use. 

The  division  of  labor  is  always  a  matter 
of  expediency.  It  is  determined  by  considera- 
tions of  efficiency.  Where  the  workers  are 
so  organized  that  each  one  does  that  for  which 
he  is  specially  fitted,  the  result  is  better  than 
where  each  one  tries  to  do  everything.  But 
this  division  of  labor  must  be  subject  to  the 
test  of  actual  experiment  and  must  not  be 
determined  by  the  arbitrary  will  of  a  ruling 
caste.  It  is  not  expedient  for  me  to  continue 
to  expend  my  energies  in  work  for  which  I  am 
not  fit.  This  is  an  economic  waste.  But  I  have 
a  right  to  fit  myself  if  I  can  for  work  of  my 
own  choosing.  To  deny  me  this  right  is  a  moral 
waste.  I  expend  my  energies  in  striving  for  a 
right  that  ought  to  have  been  granted  as  a 
matter  of  course. 

When  "women's  rights"  have  become  a 

dead 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  45 

dead  issue,  because  they  have  all  been  frankly 
admitted,  it  does  not  follow  that  women  will 
be  competing  more  fiercely  with  men  for  the 
same  positions.  It  is  more  likely  that  their 
work  will  be  more  highly  differentiated  as  their 
natural  aptitudes  have  free  play.  Once  let  the 
distinction  of  higher  and  lower  be  done  away 
with,  and  distinctly  feminine  employments 
will  take  a  new  dignity  and  acquire  social 
prestige.  New  professions  and  arts  will  arise 
where  women  have  a  natural  advantage. 
There  is  no  end  of  the  possibilities  of  such 
developments  if  the  evils  of  militarism  could 
be  abolished  and  society  could  have  wealth 
and  leisure  enough  to  develop  to  the  utmost 
a  democratic  culture. 

The  education  of  women  is  in  a  transitional 
state.  There  has  been  a  struggle  for  equal 
educational  opportunities  with  men.  This 
necessarily  took  the  form  of  the  right  to  the 
same  education  as  men.  Coeducation  was  de- 
manded and  the  demand  was  granted.  Col- 
leges have  been  established  with  the  same  re- 
quirements and  the  same  course  of  study 
given  in  the  men's  colleges. 

But 


4.6  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

But  neither  coeducational  institutions  nor 
the  women's  colleges,  as  we  now  know  them, 
have  any  claim  to  finality.  Women  have  a 
right  to  the  same  education  as  men,  but  it 
may  be  found  more  expedient  for  them  to  re- 
ceive a  different  education.  Here  is  room  for 
the  educational  genius,  in  the  atmosphere  of 
freedom,  to  make  experiments. 

The  achievement  of  freedom  means  more 
than  the  right  to  share  what  has  already  been 
created,  or  to  imitate  what  has  hitherto  been 
held  as  the  property  of  others.  It  means 
liberty  to  create  new  forms  more  perfectly 
adapted  to  one's  own  requirements.  It  means 
setting  up  new  standards  of  excellence  and 
the  initiation  of  new  methods.  The  eager 
young  women  in  our  colleges  have  had  their 
ambition  stirred.  They  have  demonstrated 
that  they  could  if  they  chose  perform  the 
same  intellectual  work  that  their  brothers 
have  done.  The  nine  days  of  wonder  at  such 
achievements  have  already  passed.  It  is  ac- 
knowledged that  they  can  do  these  things  as 
well,  though  perhaps  not  so  easily.  Are  there 
not  somethings  that  they  can  easily  do  better? 

To 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  47 

To  discover  these  things  that  come  natur- 
ally and  to  develop  them  into  fine  arts  is  to 
add  to  the  richness  and  variety  of  human  life. 

Perhaps  before  we  are  through  we  shall  come 
back  to  the  old-fashioned  idea  that  the  work 
of  men  and  women  is  for  the  most  part  non- 
competitive,  that  one  is  the  complement  of 
the  other.  A  new  chivalry  will  arise  from  a 
fresh  perception  of  differences.  But  these 
finer  appreciations  will  come  not  by  revert- 
ing to  the  mediaeval  conception  of  fixed  status. 
They  will  come  slowly  as  the  result  of  in- 
numerable experiments,  as  women  discover 
the  things  they  can  do  best. 

IN  the  summer  one  of  my  duties  is  to  act  That  conscience 
as  engineer  to  a  small  engine  that  pumps  works  better  when 
water  for  domestic  purposes.      It  is  a  ^  has  a  steady  job. 
faithful  little  machine  and  fulfills  the  ungal- 
lant  promise  in  its  advertising  circular  that 
"an  ignorant  child  or  a  woman  can  run  it." 
Even  I  have  very  little  difficulty  with  it. 

When  there  is  an  ample  supply  of  water  in 
the  well,  it  works  steadily  and  without  undue 
friction.  I  can  leave  it  to  do  its  work  so  long 

as 


48  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

as  the  fuel  lasts.  But  in  a  very  dry  season, 
when  the  water  level  is  a  bit  uncertain,  the 
very  virtues  of  the  engine  prove  its  undoing. 
In  endeavoring  to  pump  water  that  is  n't 
there,  it  begins  to  race  madly,  losing  its  bal- 
ance and  becoming  overheated  in  a  way  that 
makes  it  seem  almost  human. 

There  is  nothing  so  steadying  as  a  steady 
job.  It  is  spasmodic  and  futile  effort  which 
upsets  us.  It  is  what  St.  Paul  described  as 
"fighting  uncertainly  and  beating  the  air." 

One  notices  the  effect  of  intermittent  polit- 
ical activity  on  conscientious  women.  Dur- 
ing the  past  generation  there  has  been  a  great 
deal  of  it.  While  having  no  interest  in  the 
commonplace  routine  of  public  affairs,  they 
have  been  called  in  to  use  their  influence  in 
regard  to  great  moral  questions  which  con- 
cern the  home.  They  have  been  called  to 
work  for  temperance  legislation,  and  now  they 
are  interested  in  all  that  concerns  the  public 
health. 

Organizations  of  women  have  worked  with 
the  greatest  enthusiasm  and  efficiency  for 
specific  legislation.  They  have  brought  to  bear 

the 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  49 

the  power  which  comes  from  an  awakened 
conscience,  and  they  have  succeeded  in  their 
immediate  aims.  But  this  moral  activity  is 
spasmodic.  It  is  of  the  nature  of  a  crusade. 
The  moralizing  of  politics  is  a  steady  job,  and 
it  tends  to  develop  a  better  balanced  character. 

AT  a  meeting  in  opposition  to  the  fur-  That  husbands  have 
•ther  extension  of  the  suffrage  I  heard  some  political  rights 
i  i  .  i  that  their  wives  are 

a  charming  woman  object  to  such  ex-  ,       , 

bound  to  respect. 

tension  on  the  ground  that  a  woman  already 
has  more  influence  than  can  be  measured  by  a 
mere  vote.  And  she  proved  her  point,  at  least 
so  far  as  women  like  herself  are  concerned. 
Almost  every  woman  has  some  man  whom  she 
can  influence.  She  has  a  husband  or  a  son  or  a 
brother  or  a  lover,  or  perhaps  two  or  three 
nephews.  In  voting  she  would  only  count  one 
for  her  cause,  but  in  directing  the  votes  of 
those  nearest  her  she  may  easily  count  half 
a  dozen.  In  standing  apart  from  politics  she 
may  stand  above  it,  now  and  then  intervening 
like  the  Homeric  goddesses  while  all  the  time 
being  invisible.  Like  the  King,  she  can  do  no 
wrong,  having  no  direct  responsibility,  but 

as 


50  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

as  the  fountain  of  honor  she  can  hold  out  re- 
wards to  those  who  are  responsible.  In  order 
to  win  her  favor  they  are  likely  to  adopt 
the  righteous  opinions  she  recommends.  Why 
should  she  give  up  these  prerogatives  of  roy- 
alty in  order  to  assume  the  unromantic  bur- 
dens of  citizenship  ? 

As  I  listened  I  was  almost  converted,  and 
was  prepared  to  believe  that  government  by 
charm  was  to  be  preferred  to  any  of  the  coarse 
methods  of  democracy.  It  was  only  when 
I  seated  myself  in  the  street-car  that  my  re- 
flections took  another  turn.  The  car  was 
filled  with  business  men  returning  from  their 
work.  I  could  not  but  notice  how  deficient  in 
charm  these  citizens  were.  There  was  no  subtle 
witchery  about  them  that  could  make  the 
worse  seem  the  better  reason,  or  the  good 
reason  seem  better  than  it  is.  Not  one  of  these 
men  was  capable  of  changing  my  opinion  by 
a  subtle  appeal  to  my  emotions.  Any  cause 
they  advocated  must  have  some  merit  in- 
dependent of  them  in  order  to  succeed.  They 
were  unable  to  invest  it  with  any  irresistible 
personal  attraction. 

I 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  51 

I  considered  how  helpless  these  men  would 
be  when  they  returned  to  their  homes  and 
were  beset  by  the  propagandists  who  refused 
a  vote  of  their  own  in  order  that  they  might 
vote  by  proxy.  I  could  not  but  feel  that  an 
unfair  advantage  was  being  taken  of  these 
proxies,  for  they  might  have  opinions  of  their 
own,  which  they  would  like  to  express. 

For  the  voter  who  is  a  son  I  make  no  plea. 
It  is  doubtless  better  for  him  to  vote  as  his 
mother  tells  him.  The  voter  who  is  a  brother 
is  amply  able  to  take  his  own  part,  and  the 
lover-voter  yields  voluntarily.  But  the  hus- 
band of  the  woman  with  a  conscience  elicits 
my  sympathy.  He  is  so  helpless.  He  loves  his 
wife  dearly  and  is  ready  to  share  her  joys  and 
sorrows,  but  he  does  not  share  all  her  opinions 
in  regard  to  local  government.  Of  course  she 
does  not  choose  to  exercise  her  influence  ex- 
cept in  a  great  moral  issue.  But  she  will  find 
a  great  moral  issue  or  make  one.  From  this 
harvest  field  she  expects  to  return  bearing  her 
sheaves  with  her.  And  her  husband's  vote  is 
her  most  precious  sheaf.  To  be  deprived  of  that 
were  treason  to  the  cause  of  Anti-Suffrage. 

When 


52          MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

When  the  husband  and  wife  have  set  their 
minds  on  the  same  vote,  the  result  is  not 
doubtful.  The  husband,  in  voting  according 
to  the  dictates  of  his  wife's  conscience,  feels  a 
bitterness  that  he  is  unable  to  express.  It  was 
not  quite  fair.  If  his  wife  could  have  used 
her  conscience  in  a  more  impersonal  way,  it 
would  have  been  a  good  diffused  over  the 
whole  community.  But  she  concentrated  it 
all  on  him  and  bore  down  all  opposition. 

If  instead  of  having  only  one  vote  for  the 
family  they  could  have  their  individual  votes, 
what  a  convenience  it  would  be!  It  would 
give  the  husband  a  sense  of  independence 
like  having  a  check  book  of  his  own. 


That  a  voter  does        P   •    "\HAT  the  voter  does  not  vote  all  the 
not  vote  all  the  time,  time  is  a  consideration  that  seems  to 

but  is  allowed  a  num.       X.      be  overlooked  by  those  who  insist 
her  of  days  off  m  or-      ,  ....._ 

der  to  attend  to  his      tnat  "  a  woman  exercises  the  right  of  suffrage 

private  business.  she  must  neglect  her  duties  in  the  home. 
There  is  a  certain  force  in  this  argument. 
Eternal  vigilance  is  the  price  of  liberty,  and 
we  are  told  that  if  the  conscientious  citizen 
would  outwit  the  machine  politician  and  make 

good 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  53 

good  government  to  prevail  he  must  always 
be  "on  the  job." 

But  this  counsel  of  perfection  must  be  in- 
terpreted in  the  light  of  actual  circumstances. 
The  citizen  who  desires  good  government  must 
also  make  his  living,  and  to  do  this  honestly 
requires  considerable  effort.  There  must  be 
a  reasonable  compromise  between  public  and 
private  duty.  The  citizen  cannot  spend  all 
his  time  voting  on  every  question  that  comes 
up,  for  if  he  did  there  would  be  no  one  to  earn 
money  for  taxes.  So  he  makes  use  of  various 
labor-saving  devices,  and  selects  persons  to 
do  most  of  his  voting  for  him.  This  is  the 
very  essence  of  representative  government. 

Before  representative  government  was  in- 
vented the  objection  just  mentioned  held. 
Popular  sovereignty — which  rests  on  theprin- 
ciple  of  limited  liability  —  being  unknown, 
one  who  exercised  sovereignty  had  to  give  up 
all  other  business. 

In  the  days  of  the  Judges,  Jotham  shouted 
from  the  top  of  Mount  Gerizim  a  pungent 
parable.  "The  trees  went  forth  on  a  time  to 
anoint  a  king  over  them."  The  useful  trees 

declined 


54  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

declined  the  office  because  it  interfered  with 
their  proper  business.  "The  olive  tree  said 
unto  them, '  Should  I  leave  my  fatness,  where- 
with by  me  they  honor  God  and  man,  and  go 
to  be  promoted  over  the  trees?"  The  fig 
tree  would  not  leave  his  figs,  nor  the  vine  his 
wine  "which  cheereth  God  and  man."  The 
representatives  of  the  better  elements  having 
refused  the  nomination,  it  was  oifered  to  the 
bramble,  who  enthusiastically  accepted,  and 
announced  his  policy,  which  was  at  once  to 
destroy  the  cedars  of  Lebanon. 

If  the  trees  had  formed  themselves  into  a 
republic  instead  of  accepting  a  monarchical 
form  of  government  they  might  have  escaped 
from  their  dilemma.  They  would  have  planned 
some  way  by  which  the  olive  tree  and  the  fig 
tree,  while  still  bearing  their  proper  fruit, 
might  participate  in  the  government  of  the 
grove,  and  safeguard  their  common  interests. 
They  might  have  no  time  "to  wave  to  and  fro 
over  the  trees,"  but  they  might  do  their  share 
in  more  solid  work. 

It  is  along  this  line  that  improvements  in 
governments  have  been  made.  We  must  have 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  55 

a  certain  number  of  persons  who  give  all  their 
time  to  highly  specialized  forms  of  public 
work,  but  there  is  opportunity  also  for  the 
private  citizen  to  make  his  influence  felt. 
Government  by  the  people  means  that  the 
man  of  science  who  cannot  leave  his  researches, 
the  artist  who  is  loyal  to  his  art,  the  farmer 
who  will  not  leave  his  lands  untilled  in  order 
to  talk  politics  at  the  village  store,  all  have  a 
chance  to  influence  the  policy  of  their  coun- 
try. If  they  can  find  time  for  nothing  else, 
they  can  at  least  vote  for  the  party  that  comes 
nearest  to  their  own  ideas. 

The  home-keeping  woman's  business  may 
make  great  demands  upon  her,  but  the  de- 
mands are  not  greater  or  more  insistent  than 
those  which  come  in  other  businesses  in 
which  public-spirited  citizens  are  engaged. 
Housekeeping  is  not  an  absolutely  continu- 
ous performance,  and  neither  is  voting. 


I 


T  is  a  commonplace  in  the  household  that  That  voting  is  not  as 
it  is  a  great  deal  easier  to  do  some  things  fatiguing  a  form  of 
for  one's  self  than  to  get  other  people  to  Political  activi^  as 


_. ,  .    .  .,   ,          ,  ,     vote-getting 

do  them.  This  is  true  even  if  the  other  people 


are 


56  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

are  willing  and  competent.  Still  more  is  it  true 
when  they  have  to  be  persuaded  and  their 
objections  overruled. 

In  politics  to  express  one's  own  opinion  is 
a  very  simple  affair.  Many  voters  content 
themselves  with  this.  But  to  influence  the 
votes  of  others  so  that  they  will  express  your 
opinions  at  the  polls  is  obviously  a  much 
more  difficult  undertaking.  The  good  vote- 
getter  must  rise  early  and  keep  long  hours 
at  his  work.  Indeed,  the  mere  voter  can 
hardly  be  said  to  have  gone  into  politics  at 
all.  He  has  not  experienced  its  fever  and  its 
fret. 

The  best  example  of  extreme  political  ac- 
tivity is  the  lobbyist.  He  has  no  legal  stand- 
ing in  the  state  legislature.  He  casts  no  vote. 
But  he  is  specially  interested  in  the  passage 
of  certain  measures.  Not  voting  himself,  he 
devises  means  to  influence  the  votes  of  other 
men.  To  him  politics  becomes  a  most  excit- 
ing game.  How  many  votes  can  he  control? 
Each  one  must  be  gained  through  some  well- 
devised  plan.  All  this  may  be  very  interest- 
ing, but  it  is  a  nerve-racking  business. 

Such 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  57 

Such  an  experience  must  come  to  the  cap- 
able women  who  are  organizing  opposition 
to  the  further  extension  of  the  suffrage.  As 
long  as  they  confined  themselves  to  a  protest 
addressed  to  the  general  public  they  did  not 
feel  the  embarrassment.  But  when  they  be- 
come very  much  in  earnest,  and  attempt  to 
bring  political  pressure  to  bear,  they  realize 
what  hard  work  they  have  undertaken.  To  in- 
fluence the  electorate  in  which  they  have  no 
share,  they  must  use  the  methods  of  the  lobby- 
ist. These  are  the  only  means  at  their  disposal. 
If  they  succeed  in  this  most  strenuous  form  of 
political  activity  mere  voting  should  have  no 
terrors  for  them. 

Have  you  never  looked  at  a  well-seasoned 
jury  as  they  listen  to  the  fervent  appeal  of 
the  trial  lawyer.  They  being  honest  men  are 
conscious  of  their  responsibility,  and  yet  the 
case  does  not  seem  to  get  on  their  nerves. 
They  sit  in  placid  expectancy,  ready  to  be 
moved  by  a  great  argument,  but  they  won't 
do  the  moving.  If  the  evidence  should  be  con- 
vincing, they  are  willing  to  be  convinced,  but 
if  it  is  insufficient,  they  will  be  content  to 

register 


58  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

register  the  fact.  Whichever  way  it  turns 
out,  they  have  the  satisfaction  of  having  done 
their  sworn  duty. 

But  the  advocate,  poor  man,  is  in  a  differ- 
ent plight.  His  business  is  to  convince  them, 
and  if  he  does  n't  he  has  lost  his  case.  It  is 
harder  on  the  nerves  to  be  an  advocate  than 
a  juryman. 

Through  experience  we  learn  to  distinguish 
between  a  work  and  a  tool  that  makes  the 
work  easier.  If  one  who  is  unaccustomed  to 
severe  out-of-door  labor  were  handed  a  crow- 
bar, he  might  decline  it.  It  represents  a  kind 
of  toil  to  which  he  is  averse.  But  a  while 
after,  if  he  were  struggling  with  a  sizable 
boulder  which  he  was  endeavoring  by  main 
strength  to  remove  from  the  field,  he  would 
change  his  mind.  If  he  were  offered  a  crow- 
bar he  would  say,  "Thank  you."  He  would 
be  astonished  to  find  how  much  it  lightened 
his  self-imposed  toil. 

It  is  the  women  who  are  dealing  with  tasks 
too  big  for  them  who  welcome  the  tools  of 
civilization.  They  are  glad  to  have  their  labor 
lightened. 

One 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN          59 

ONE  cannot  meditate  always,  one  must  That  women  in  ex- 
sometimes  consult  the  dictionary,  pressing  their  opin- 
mi  j  •  •  r  IT.  i°ns  should  be  allowed 

The  dictionary  informs  us  that  the  .   .  , 

*  to  be  as  modest  and 

word  "vote"  comes  from  the  Latin  votum  —  unobtrusive  as  men. 

a  vow,  a  wish,  a  prayer.  The  word  " suffrage" 
has  a  similar  religious  meaning,  as  is  indicated 
by  ecclesiastical  usage.  The  suffrages  in  con- 
nection with  the  Litany  indicate  the  peti- 
tions to  the  Good  Lord  to  hear  us. 

The  vote  is  therefore  a  kind  of  petition;  it  is 
an  expression  of  personal  desire  and  prefer- 
ence. In  this  primary  sense  there  is  nothing 
which  the  most  careful  person  would  object 
to  as  unbecoming  in  a  woman.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  women  always  have  expressed  their 
preferences,  often  in  the  most  decided  manner. 

But  it  appears  that  there  is  a  secondary 
meaning.  A  vote  is  defined  as :  "  The  formal 
expression  of  a  will,  preference,  wish,  or  choice, 
in  regard  to  any  measure  proposed,  in  which 
the  person  voting  has  an  interest  in  common 
with  others,  either  in  electing  a  person  to  fill 
a  certain  situation  or  office,  or  in  passing  laws, 
rules,  regulations,  etc.  This  vote  or  choice 
may  be  expressed  by  holding  up  the  hand,  by 

standing 


60  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

standing  up,  by  voice,  ballot  or  otherwise." 
It  is  to  the  expression  of  opinion  in  this  or- 
derly way  that  objection  is  made.  Here  we 
come  to  the  taboo. 

A  woman  may  express  her  opinion  in  any 
way  that  is  personal  and  obtrusive.  She  may 
write  for  the  press,  address  public  meetings, 
organize  parties,  canvass  from  house  to  house, 
preach  from  the  pulpit.  She  may  make  her- 
self conspicuous  as  the  advocate  of  any  cause 
she  adopts.  In  all  this  she  is  within  her  rights. 

But  one  method  she  must  not  use  —  the 
secret  ballot.  It  must  be  remembered  that 
it  is  the  secrecy  of  the  ballot  which  distin- 
guishes the  voting  of  the  present  day  from  that 
of  previous  generations.  The  elections  which 
Dickens  describes  were  noisy  affairs.  Each 
elector  had  to  declare  his  choice  before  the 
crowd.  It  was  a  trying  performance  for  a 
quiet  man  who  might  find  it  hard  to  resist  the 
pressure  put  upon  him. 

It  was  argued  that  the  man  who  had  not 
the  hardihood  to  stand  up  and  declare  his 
preference  in  the  face  of  a  howling  mob,  or 
under  the  scrutiny  of  his  employer,  did  not 

deserve 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  61 

deserve  to  have  his  opinion  considered.  But 
now  it  is  admitted  that  the  quiet  man  has  his 
rights  that  must  be  safeguarded.  He  is  al- 
lowed to  express  his  opinion  on  public  mat- 
ters in  an  impersonal  way  and  in  absolute 
privacy.  The  polling-booth  is  his  castle,  and 
no  one  need  know  how  he  marks  his  Australian 
ballot. 

And  it  is  the  secrecy  and  the  impersonal 
character  of  it  that  gives  it  its  power.  The 
one  thing  which  the  politician  is  afraid  of  js  the 
"silent  vote."  After  the  shouting  is  all  over, 
and  after  all  those  who  have  ostentatiously 
"stood  up  to  be  counted"  have  been  counted, 
there  is  anxious  waiting  for  another  verdict. 
What  do  the  quiet  stay-at-home  people  who 
do  no  shouting  think?  The  decision  of  great 
issues  rests  with  them. 

The  woman  who  does  not  object  to  osten- 
tatious methods  has  already  ample  oppor- 
tunity to  make  her  opinions  known  and  her 
influence  felt.  But  there  are  great  numbers  of 
women  who  are  thoughtful  but  who  shrink 
from  publicity. 

Why  should  not  the  quiet  stay-at-home 

women 


62  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 


women  have  the  same  means  for  expressing 
themselves  which  are  allowed  to  quiet  stay- 
at-home  men? 


That  chivalry  is  an 
excellent  thing  and 
much  to  be  desired, 
when  it  is  genuine. 


L 


OST,  somewhere  on  the  road  to  the 
polls,  by  twentieth-century  women, 
the  chivalrous  deference  which  once 
was  theirs.  This  heirloom  of  mediaeval  work- 
manship was  highly  valued  for  its  associations. 
If  returned,  no  questions  will  be  asked. 

Such  an  advertisement  would  express  the 
feelings  of  those  who  fear  that  political  rights 
may  be  gained  at  too  great  cost.  Justice  is 
something  that  can  be  demanded,  but  is  there 
not  something  which  without  any  demand 
has  been  freely  given  and  graciously  received? 
And  what  if  this  fine  gift,  which  has  given 
beauty  and  repose,  should  henceforth  be  with- 
held? 

That  which  was  characteristic  of  old-time 
chivalry  was  the  idealization  of  womanhood. 
It  was  a  kind  of  religion  with  a  ritual  of  its 
own.  The  manners  of  the  gentleman  expressed 
the  attitude  of  one  who  recognized  a  kind  of 
worth  different  from  his  own,  and  finer.  What 

he 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  63 

he  would  not  yield  to  force  he  gladly  surrend- 
ered as  an  act  of  homage.  It  is  a  feeling  that 
has  not  been  expressed  merely  by  the  eti- 
quette of  drawing-rooms.  On  the  sinking 
ship  men  of  all  classes  respond  to  the  cry, 
"Women  first." 

But  now  it  is  suggested  that  when  women 
demand  their  rights  they  must  expect  their 
privileges  to  be  withdrawn.  In  the  stern 
struggle  for  existence,  competing  on  equal 
terms,  they  must  look  for  no  favors.  The 
gracious  manners  of  the  past,  with  all  kindly 
considerations,  must  vanish.  The  little  courte- 
sies which  gave  so  much  beauty  to  social 
life  cease  with  that  state  of  society  to  which 
they  were  appropriate. 

This  sounds  very  much  like  a  threat.  But 
the  woman  who  has  been  seeking  her  civil 
rights  need  not  take  it  too  seriously.  It  is  not 
supposed  to  be  proper  to  look  a  gift  horse 
in  the  mouth,  but  if  the  gift  horse  comes 
from  an  Indian  giver  who  demands  it  back 
again,  one  may  be  pardoned  for  scrutinizing 
it  closely.  It  serves  to  alleviate  the  sense  of 
loss. 

Real 


64  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

Real  chivalry  is  not  a  matter  of  bargain. 
The  gentleman  seeks  to  build  up  a  society 
in  which  delicate  sentiment  is  joined 

"To  noble  manners,  as  the  flower 
And  native  growth  of  noble  mind." 

On  the  other  hand,  — 

"The  churl  in  spirit,  howe'er  he  veil 
His  want  in  forms  for  fashion's  sake, 
Will  let  his  coltish  spirit  break 
At  seasons  through  the  gilded  pale." 

As  women  more  and  more  develop  their  in- 
dividuality, they  may  expect  the  churl  in 
spirit  to  forget  the  forms  of  fashion  which 
concealed  his  nature.  But  the  noble  manners 
which  are  the  growth  of  noble  minds  are  not 
affected  by  political  changes.  True  chivalry 
has  a  quick  appreciation  of  new  forms  of 
excellence.  It  rejoices  in  intellectual  and  moral 
beauty. 

Romance  does  not  all  lie  behind  us.  The 
recognitions  on  the  part  of  men  and  women 
of  certain  equalities  does  not  prevent  them 
from  also  perceiving  certain  superiorities 
which  they  each  admire  in  the  other. 

In 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  65 

IN  the  "Faerie  Queene"  there  is  intro-  That  example  is  more 
duced  a  militant  lady  Radigund  who  en-  P°tent  than  precept, 
countered  the  stout  Sir  Artegall  in  battle 
and  by  means  of  a  stratagem  overcame  him 
and  reduced  him  to  ignoble  slavery.  Spenser 
cannot  resist  the  temptation  to  moralize :  — 

"Such  is  the  crueltie  of  women  kynd 
When  they  have  shaken  off  the  shame-fast  band 
With  which  wise  Nature  did  them  strongly  bynd 
T'  obey  the  heasts  of  man's  well-ruling  hand, 
That  then  all  rule  and  reason  they  withstand 
To  purchase  a  licentious  libertie. 
But  virtuous  women  wisely  understand 
That  they  were  borne  to  base  humilitie, 
Unlesse  the  heavens  them  lift  to  lawful  sovraintie." 

We  can  almost  see  the  poet  in  the  act  of 
composition.  His  condemnation  of  the  un- 
ladylike action  of  Radigund  leads  him  to  a 
sweeping  generalization,  akin  to  that  of  John 
Knox.  But  the  same  shadow  of  royalty  that 
checked  the  Scotch  reformer  falls  upon  him. 
What  would  Gloriana  say  about  this  prohi- 
bition of  wise  Nature?  The  poet  saves  him- 
self at  the  last  moment  from  his  own  logic. 
Women  are  born  to  a  state  of  base  humility, 
unless  it  should  turn  out,  as  it  sometimes  does, 

that 


66  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

that  they  are  lifted  to  lawful   sovereignty. 
Elizabeth  could  not  object  to  that. 

The  moral  is  so  disarranged  as  to  be  hardly 
recognizable,  when  it  turns  out  that  Sir  Arte- 
gall  owes  his  deliverance  not  to  his  own  prow- 
ess but  to  that  of  Britomart,  "a  lady  knight." 
This  valiant  Britoness  unites  beauty  and 
strength  in  a  way  that  is  irresistible.  The  poet 
in  his  admiration  coins  words  like  "cham- 
pionesse"  and  "conqueresse"  to  describe  her. 
Britomart  in  shining  armor  rides  through  the 
forest.  With  her  sword  she  slays  Radigund  and 
delivers  Artegall.  She  then  proceeds  to  restore 
the  conservative  order.  The  lady  knight  did 
what  the  mere  man  was  unable  to  accomplish. 

"  So  there  a  while  they  afterwards  remained 

Him  to  refresh,  and  her  late  wounds  to  heale; 

During  which  space  she  there  as  princess  rained, 

And  changing  all  that  forme  of  common  weale, 

The  liberty  of  women  did  repeale, 

Which  they  had  long  usurpt;  and  them  restoring 

To  men's  subjection,  did  true  justice  deale; 

That  all  they,  as  a  goddesse  her  adoring 

Her  wisdom  did  admire,  and  hearkened  to  her  loring." 

One  is  puzzled  over  the  conduct  of  Brito- 
mart. She  was  evidently  sincere  in  her  ideas 

as 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  67 

as  to  the  sphere  of  women,  and  determined, 
in  her  capable  way,  to  compel  them  to  keep 
within  it.  But  did  she  prove  her  case  ?  We  are 
quite  ready  to  see  the  virago  Radigund  over- 
thrown. Her  government  was  intolerable. 
But  Britomart,  with  her  superb  poise,  and  her 
ability  to  bring  things  to  pass,  wins  our  con- 
fidence. She  was  just  the  person  we  should 
call  for  in  an  emergency.  And  yet  we  cannot 
forget  that  she  was  a  woman. 

"Nor  knowest  thou  what  argument 
Thy  life  to  thy  neighbor's  creed  has  lent." 

The  modern  Britomart  who  proves  herself 
an  excellent  orator  and  politician  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  participation  of  women  in  politics 
must  sometimes  pause  to  consider  whether  her 
precept  or  her  example  will  prove  the  more 
powerful. 


IT  is  useless  to  vote  and  pass  laws  if  the  That  a  majority  vote 
popular   will    is    not    enforced.     There  does  not  represent  a 
must  somewhere  be  a  coercive  power  Preponderance  of 
...         .        .      ...  r  .    .  r      .1ir  .   ,.         physical  force. 

which  makes  itself  felt  in  case  of  willful  diso- 
bedience.   This  may  be  carefully  concealed, 

but 


68  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

but  it  must  be  always  existent.    Says  honest 
Dogberry:  — 

"You  are  to  bid  any  man  stand,  in  the  Prince's 
name. 

" 2nd  Watch.  How  if  he  will  not  stand? 

"Dogberry.  Why,  then,  take  no  note  of  him,  but  let 
him  go;  and  presently  call  the  rest  of  the  watch  to- 
gether, and  thank  God  you  are  rid  of  a  knave." 

Will  not  this  happen  when  majorities  are 
obtained  by  the  votes  of  women?  When 
party  feeling  runs  high,  how  will  the  major- 
ity, if  it  is  not  composed  of  potential  sol- 
diers, enforce  its  measures  against  a  fighting 
minority? 

This  objection  is  worth  thinking  about  if 
for  no  other  reason  than  that  it  may  clear  our 
ideas  in  regard  to  the  nature  of  the  force  that 
is  behind  constitutional  government.  When 
you  analyze  the  objection  you  will  find  a 
naive  assumption  that  in  order  to  have  a 
stable  government  the  majority  should  al- 
ways be  able  to  coerce  the  minority.  It  is  a 
show  of  force.  When  the  minority  take  it 
into  account  they  feel  that  it  is  of  no  use  to 
resist.  It  is  as  if  two  fleets,  instead  of  fighting, 
were  to  do  a  little  figuring.  The  fleet  that  is 

outnumbered 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  69 

outnumbered  yields.  If  it  were  not  to  do  so  it 
knows  that  it  would  be  destroyed. 

But  this  view  leaves  out  of  account  many 
facts.  As  a  fighting  force  the  majority  party 
in  almost  any  general  election  in  the  United 
States  is  usually  insufficient  to  inspire  the 
opposing  party  with  terror.  There  is  a  purely 
conventional  element  in  the  system  which  we 
have  adopted.  There  is  no  alignment  of 
voters  which  corresponds  to  the  mobilization 
of  rival  armies.  The  conditions  which  deter- 
mine an  election  do  not  correspond  to  those 
that  determine  a  battle.  Moreover,  it  is  not 
at  all  certain  that  the  majority  of  men  who 
vote  for  a  particular  candidate  would  be 
willing  to  follow  him  to  death.  Their  prefer- 
ence may  be  of  a  very  mild  sort.  A  deter- 
mined minority,  well  disciplined  and  well  led, 
might  easily  overthrow  a  mere  majority  of 
peaceful  voters. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  this  is  what  is  done 
under  military  despotisms.  No  account  is 
taken  of  the  preferences  of  the  majority.  If 
the  popular  vote  is  tolerated  it  is  a  farce.  A 
compact  minority  rules. 

Nobody 


70  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

Nobody  thinks  for  a  moment  that  in  the 
late  disturbances  in  Mexico  it  would  have 
mattered  in  the  least  what  portions  of  the 
community  had  nominally  the  right  of  suf- 
frage. No  daring  chieftain,  with  a  loyal  band 
of  warriors  ready  to  obey  him,  would  have 
been  deterred  by  adverse  votes  of  unarmed 
citizens.  There  would  be  nothing  alarming  in 
their  show  of  numbers. 

It  is  only  when  the  sense  of  justice  prevails 
over  brute  force  that  the  question  of  the 
suffrage  becomes  of  any  importance.  The 
consent  of  the  governed  is  asked  for,  and 
means  are  devised  for  securing  that  consent. 
When  that  consent  is  ascertained  by  consti- 
tutional means  it  is  agreed  that  all  parties 
accept  it  as  final. 

The  reason  we  obey  the  decision  of  the 
majority  is  not  because  the  majority  is  sup- 
posed to  represent  the  preponderance  of 
physical  force.  It  is  simply  that  everybody 
agrees  to  that  method  of  deciding  a  contro- 
verted question.  If  we  had  agreed  to  submit 
to  the  decision  of  an  almost  infinitesimal 
minority  of  citizens,  —  let  us  say  to  the 

elderly 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  71 

elderly  gentlemen  who  compose  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  —  the  effect 
would  be  the  same.  In  fact  many  of  the  most 
important  questions  are  thus  decided.  The 
Supreme  Court  is  in  a  military  sense  alto- 
gether ineffective.  It  could  not  possibly  en- 
force its  own  decrees.  But  all  the  fighting 
strength  of  the  nation  can  be  counted  on  to 
defend  the  Constitution  and  to  make  consti- 
tutional decisions  to  be  respected.  When  an 
insolent  party  which  may  be  either  in  the 
minority  or  the  majority  tramples  on  the 
plain  provisions  of  the  Constitution,  it  has  to 
reckon  not  with  partisan  but  with  national 
sentiment.  Party  lines  are  instantly  forgot- 
ten and  the  solidarity  of  the  nation  is  made 
apparent. 

It  is  on  the  law-abiding  disposition  of  the 
people  that  the  social  order  depends.  When 
this  fails  all  majority  votes  are  meaningless. 
In  the  utter  breakdown  of  constitutional 
government  "Votes  for  Women"  would  be  a 
meaningless  shibboleth.  But  votes  for  men 
would  be  equally  futile. 

The 


72  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

That  these  medita-       A   •   "\HE  judicious  reader  who  may  have 
tions  do  not  remove  been    following    these    meditations 

j'oj    uf    y-  P/u  must  have  noticed  that  they  have 

dimculties  m  the  way  J 

of  woman  suffrage.  been  going  around  the  subject  rather  than 
making  a  frontal  attack  upon  it.  But  though 
we  have  gained  no  decisive  results,  this 
method  may  not  have  been  altogether  fruit- 
less. 

As  I  write  I  now  and  then  look  out  of  my 
study  upon  a  boulder-strewn  New  Hampshire 
hilltop.  Most  of  these  venerable  relics  of  the 
ice  age  are  too  big  to  be  moved  by  such  force 
as  I  have  at  my  command.  Besides,  they  are 
picturesque  and  I  like  to  see  them  where  they 
are.  But  there  is  a  rock  in  my  path  which  has 
interfered  with  my  convenience.  Thinking  it 
to  be  the  outcropping  of  the  ledge,  I  have 
hitherto  meekly  accepted  it  as  a  part  of  the 
nature  of  things  against  which  it  was  useless 
to  rebel.  But  yesterday  I  dug  around  it  with 
a  pick.  I  discovered  that  it  was  only  a 
boulder  that  had  dropped  on  that  spot  by 
accident  and  was  not  a  structural  part  of  the 
Granite  State.  This  encouraged  me  to 
further  explorations.  At  intervals  I  have 

been 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN          73 

been  picking  at  the  clay  in  which  it  was  em- 
bedded, and  have  removed  a  number  of 
smaller  rocks  which  wedged  it  in.  Having  ar- 
ranged a  somewhat  precarious  fulcrum  I  have 
tried  it  with  a  crowbar  and  have  felt  the  rock 
move. 

That  is  as  far  as  I  have  gone.  It  is  a  largeish 
boulder,  and  I  need  greater  leverage  and  per- 
haps may  call  upon  other  members  of  the 
family  for  assistance.  But  that  the  obstruc- 
tion is  removable  I  have  no  doubt.  I  feel 
quite  sure  that  we  can  move  it  out  of  the  way 
whenever,  as  we  say  up  here  in  the  country, 
"we  get  'round  to  it." 

That  is  the  way  I  feel  in  regard  to  any  ob- 
struction in  the  way  of  rational  progress. 
Before  we  remove  it  we  must  remove  those 
habits  and  prejudices  in  which  it  has  been 
embedded  and  which  have  held  it  in  place. 
After  the  ground  around  it  has  been  loosened 
we  can  move  it  if  we  think  it  worth  while  to 
exert  ourselves.  The  first  business  of  the 
public-spirited  citizen  is  to  find  out  what  is 
desirable.  That  there  are  practical  difficul- 
ties he  is  well  aware. 

One 


74  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 


That  most  women 
do  not  take  large 
and  disinterested 
views  of  public 
questions. 


ONE  practical  difficulty  in  the  way  of 
the  participation  of  women  in  public 
affairs  we  might  as  well  put  bluntly. 
They  do  not  seem  to  be  intellectually  fit  for  it. 
There  are,  of  course,  exceptions,  but  it  is  very 
rare  to  find  a  woman  who  has  a  statesmanlike 
mind.  The  ordinary  woman  is  interested  in 
persons  rather  than  in  principles.  Only  when 
a  principle  is  embodied  in  a  person  is  she 
aroused  to  any  enthusiasm.  She  sees  the  pic- 
turesque aspects  of  a  cause,  but  does  not 
readily  follow  an  economic  process.  That 
careful  balancing  of  judgment  which  is  de- 
manded in  the  solution  of  complex  political 
problems  does  not  come  easily  to  her.  She  is 
inclined  to  jump  at  conclusions.  She  is  more 
likely  to  be  interested  in  little  things  which 
touch  her  own  life  than  in  great  things  which 
determine  the  destinies  of  nations. 

I  was  struck  with  these  limitations  when  I 
listened  to  the  talk  of  a  company  of  ordinarily 
intelligent  women  when  the  tremendous  news 
came  of  the  breaking-out  of  the  European 
war.  The  larger  significance  of  it  seemed  al- 
most to  escape  them,  or  at  least  could  find  no 

adequate 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  75 

adequate  expression.  But  the  moment  the 
talk  turned  upon  the  experience  of  some 
friend  traveling  in  Europe  who  could  not 
cash  her  checks,  and  who  must  return  in  the 
steerage,  they  became  animated.  These  petty 
inconveniences  seemed  to  be  more  interesting 
than  the  vast  events  that  were  changing  hu- 
man history. 

Does  not  that,  I  asked  myself,  have  great 
significance?  Does  it  not  indicate  a  limitation 
in  thought  and  imagination?  Are  not  those 
whose  minds  react  in  this  way  fitted  to  decide 
questions  of  private  duty  rather  than  those 
which  are  public  ? 

PURSUING  these  meditations  on  the  That  most  men— in- 
limitations  of  the  feminine  mind,  I  eluding  most  crowned 
went  into  the  city  and  stood  with  a  ^ads -do  not  take 

large  and  dismter- 
group  of  men  who  crowded  before  the  news-  esteci  views  of  public 

paper  bulletin  boards.  Here,  said  I,  are  men  questions, 
who,  with  the  consciousness  of  the  great 
events  which  are  taking  place,  are  waiting 
breathlessly  for  the  news.  A  little  observa- 
tion, however,  convinced  me  that  the  news 
which  these  citizens  were  awaiting  was  not 

that 


76  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

that  from  the  chancelleries  of  Europe  but 
from,  the  baseball  field. 

But  what  of  "the  chancelleries  of  Eu- 
rope"? The  phrase  is  a  fine  one  and  suggests 
to  the  American  mind  an  almost  superhu- 
man political  sagacity.  I  turn  to  the  State 
papers  that  have  been  published  giving  the 
correspondence  between  the  sovereigns  of  Eu- 
rope on  the  eve  of  the  great  conflict. 

What  a  revelation  it  was  of  the  limitations 
of  the  human  mind.  The  tone  was  personal 
as  if  it  were  a  quarrel  between  two  individuals 
each  jealous  of  his  own  dignity  and  each  im- 
patient of  a  moment's  delay.  These  men, 
who  were  in  reality  spokesmen  for  millions  of 
people,  had  evidently  a  most  inadequate 
sense  of  their  mighty  responsibilities.  They 
were  thinking  of  little  things  rather  than  of 
those  which  concerned  the  welfare  of  the 
whole  world.  There  is  little  evidence  that 
they  measured  the  full  extent  of  the  catas- 
trophe. 

When  two  steamships  crash  into  each  other, 
we  take  it  for  granted  that  some  one  has 
blundered.  When  half  a  dozen  great  nations 

find 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  77 

find  themselves  in  disastrous  collision,  we  are 
appalled  at  the  blundering  statesmanship. 

Nations  may  perish  through  the  inability 
of  those  in  authority  to  distinguish  between 
the  big  thing  and  the  little.  In  pursuing  a 
petty  advantage  they  fall  into  the  pit  pre- 
pared for  them.  To  this  danger  human  in- 
stitutions are  always  liable.  Government 
would  be  an  easy  thing  if  the  lack  of  perfect 
balance  in  judgment  were  merely  a  defect  of 
the  feminine  mind.  Unfortunately  it  is  a 
defect  of  the  human  mind.  Even  great  philos- 
ophers are  not  free  from  it. 


I 


T  is  distressing  that  there  is  so  much  in-  That  nevertheless 
competence  in  all  governments.    Gov-  public  questions  must 
ernment  of  the  competent  by  the  com-  be  considered  and  hu- 


man  interests  must 
petent  has  never  been  realized.   Government  be  entruste(i  to  hu- 

of  the  incompetent  by  the  competent  sounds  man  beings, 
well  in  theory,  but  in  practice  it  is  short-lived, 
for  competence  is  not  an  hereditary  quality. 
Because  the  masses  of  the  people  have 
always  been  conscious  of  their  own  liability  to 
error  they  have  listened  superstitiously  to 
those  who  have  claimed  to  be  free  from  such 

human 


7  8  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

human  infirmity.  With  pathetic  loyalty  they 
have  obeyed  the  rulers  by  divine  right;  and 
they  have  been  disappointed.  It  is  because  of 
the  failure  of  monarchies  and  aristocracies 
and  theocracies  to  fulfill  their  promises  that 
the  experiment  of  democracy  is  tried. 

We  cease  to  expect  a  political  miracle  and 
accept  the  situation  in  which  we  find  our- 
selves. The  doctrine  that  the  voice  of  the 
people  is  the  voice  of  God  is  not  the  basis  of 
modern  democracy.  It  is  simply  the  echo  of 
the  theory  of  Divine  Right  transferred  from 
one  man  to  a  million.  It  is  the  doctrine  of 
those  who  are  still  seeking  for  some  magical 
way  of  escape  from  human  fallibility. 

A  true  democracy  is  sober-minded.  It 
realizes  that  the  human  mind  does  not  reach 
final  truth  at  a  bound.  It  is  not  easy  for  it  to 
rise  above  that  which  is  narrowly  personal. 
We  are  not  born  public-spirited  nor  with  the 
ability  to  think  nationally.  We  must  be  edu- 
cated for  citizenship  and  all  its  responsibili- 
ties. We  are  to  expect  that  the  people  will 
make  mistakes;  our  hope  is  that  they  will  be 
able  to  recognize  and  correct  these  mistakes. 

The 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  79 

The  vote  is  chiefly  valuable  in  this  corrective 
process.  It  is  not  so  much  like  the  engine  in 
an  aeroplane  as  like  the  "stabilizer"  which 
keeps  the  machine  steady.  When  the  leaders 
in  a  democracy  make  too  many  mistakes  the 
common  sense  of  the  electorate  is  brought 
into  play  to  preserve  the  balance. 

Political  prescience  is  a  rare  quality,  and  so 
is  that  "huge,  heroic  magnanimity"  which 
only  now  and  then  manifests  itself.  But  fortu- 
nately common  sense  is  more  generally  dif- 
fused. And  plain,  ordinary  common  sense 
is  the  chief  thing  which  is  demanded  of  a 
voter. 

GOVERNOR    BRADFORD   tells    us  "That  all  great  and 
how  the  Pilgrims  came  to  leave  the  honourable  actions 
Old  World,   "not  out  of    any  new-  are  accompanied  with 

ri         -jj-      u  u      great  difficulties  and 

fangledness  or  other  like  giddie    humor   by  must  be  both  enter- 

which  men  are  often  times  transported  to  prised  and  overcome 

their  great  hurt  and  danger,  but  for  sundrie  with  answerable 

...          j       i'j  »  courages." 

weightie  and  solid  reasons. 

We  have  long  since  ceased  to  charge  these 
bold  adventurers  with  new-fangledness,  but 
doubtless  there  were  many  in  Amsterdam 

who 


8o  MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN 

who  shook  their  heads  gravely  over  their 
"giddie  humor." 

It  was  only  after  the  grave  and  solid  reasons 
had  been  recited  that  attention  was  given  to 
the  difficulties  that  must  be  encountered. 

"It  was  granted  the  dangers  were  great  but 
not  desperate,  the  difficulties  were  many  but 
not  invincible.  For  though  there  were  many 
of  them  likely,  yet  they  were  not  certaine;  it 
might  be  sundrie  of  the  things  feared  might 
never  befale;  others  by  providente  care  and 
the'use  of  good  means  might  in  a  great  meas- 
ure be  prevented;  and  all  of  them  through 
the  help  of  God  by  fortitude  and  patience 
might  either  be  borne  or  over  come." 

Those  who  believe  that  the  next  inevitable 
step  in  the  evolution  of  democracy  is  to  give 
every  adult  citizen  the  suffrage  do  not  minim- 
ize the  practical  difficulties.  They  only  de- 
clare that  there  are  weighty  and  solid  reasons 
why  we  should  go  forward  and  not  backward. 
It  is  right  that  thoughtful  women  should 
hesitate  before  assuming  new  responsibilities. 
But  if  they  are  convinced  that  the  public 

welfare 


MEDITATIONS  on  VOTES  for  WOMEN  81 

welfare  can  be  served  by  them  directly  instead 
of  indirectly,  they  will  respond  with  "an- 
swerable courages." 

Says  the  old  record  of  the  men  and  women 
who  impressed  their  spirit  in  America:  — 

"After  many  other  perticular  things  an- 
swered and  aledged  on  both  sids  it  was  fully  con- 
cluded by  the  major  parte  to  put  this  designe  in 
execution  and  to  prosecute  it  by  the  best  means 
they  could." 


THE    END 


Utitoeitfibe  press* 

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U    .    S    .   A 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

Return  this  material  to  the  library 

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